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U.S. National Do-Not-Call Registry is Law

Posted by timothy on from the oh-yes-do-please dept.

extra88 writes "Bush has signed the Do-Not-Call Registry into law. The registry will be run by the FTC and funded by fees collected from telemarketers. Telemarketers can be fined up to $11K for calling someone on the list. Politicians, surveys (loophole?) and charities are exempt from using the list. The FCC oversees certain industries (airlines, banks and phone companies) and will have to "buy in" to the registry for it to affect those industries. Slashdot covered this story when the bill went through House of Representatives."

8 of 525 comments (clear)

  1. why is anyone exempt? by bkrrrrr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why are surveys and charities exempt? They're no less annoying, and have no right to call you out of the blue either.

    bkr

    1. Re:why is anyone exempt? by Bobo_The_Boinger · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Come on, that is a foolish argument. If you are calling people and asking them "are you willing and able to take the time to take a survey right now?" You are already removing any randomness from your data. First you are only getting those people who OWN phones. You are also only going to get those people who have nothing better to do than talk to you at the instant that you call. As such you will talk to many more jobless people than those who work long hours, many more single people than those watching active small children, etc.

      Sorry, but if you want truly random data, you'll have to work a lot harder than picking up the nearest phone book to get it.

      As for whether the public needs more statistics, I don't think so. According to my calculations, I have actually listened to and understood 0.7% of statistics that are spewed at me daily from the television. Of those 0.01% have proven useful to me in my life. :)

      --
      --David
  2. Overseas calls? by tinrobot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, if someone calls from within the US, you can haul them to court where there's an $11K fine... but what if the call originates in... say... Tijuana? Ottowa? Bombay?

    I get the feeling that, in order to survive, junk phone callers will resort to some dirty tricks.

  3. It's all your fault by mr.nicholas · · Score: 4, Insightful
    You know, I've heard a lot of anger coming from the Telemarketing industry regarding this. The general consensus is that it will drive them completely out of business.

    You know what? It's all their faults anyway. If they hadn't been so aggresive and so intrusive (I used to get around 15 calls from 6pm to 9pm ... right smack dab in the middle of dinner), they wouldn't have pissed off an entire nation of people and legislation like this wouldn't be required.

    But they were, so it is needed.

    Hm. I guess that thought applies to SPAM as well.

    My comment to telemarketers: Here's a dime, go call someone who gives a damn (but make sure you check The Registry first!). As my mother used to say: you made the bed, now f**king sleep in it.

  4. How are *they* going to do this? by Botchka · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How the hell would I prove that a telemarketer called me? Is it my word against their word? Do I obtain phone records? Does the government obtain phone records? Now granted, my cell phone does a pretty good job of breaking calls down to incoming and outgoing, but I don't recall if it tells you the phone number of the incoming call on the bill Seems like yet another political feel good move that the government has no way of enforcing. Hey if it works and the iron the kinks out, then sign me up! Hell lets figure out how to do the same thing as spammers, since I think that cause more pain and cost more money.

    --
    Money not found! A)bort, R)etry, D)eclare Bankruptcy
  5. Re:Do-Not-Email Next? by Jason+Cain · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How would you enforce it? I assume that most of my unsolicited telephone calls come from within the US, and are therefore subject to US laws.
    The callers could move outside the US, but the cost of making the phone calls would increase dramatically.

    However, it's easy for spammers to move outside the US to avoid an unfavorable law, and doesn't really change their costs much.

  6. Something doesn't make sense by jonasson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Telemarketers say the registry will devastate their business."
    This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If anything, a do not call list would help them reduce the costs by eliminating unnecessary phone calls. The people who sign up for this list are those who are least likely to purchase anything through a telemarketer. Now that they have a list of numbers not likely to buy anything, they can skip over that and save the cost of a phone call.

  7. automated sign up? no thanks by anonymous+loser · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Thanks for making up my mind for me. I'd rather evaluate the merits of receiving telephone solicitations and make the decision to sign up on a do-not-call list myself, and I'm sure there are millions of others who agree.

    And just so you know, some people LIKE to receive telemarketing calls, credit card offers, etc. Maybe they're lonely. Maybe they need toilet paper. It doesn't matter. If you sign me up for something that I didn't ask for, you are violating my privacy just as much as the guy who calls me in the middle of dinner.