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National Do Not Call List Opens for Registrations
prockcore writes "The National Do Not Call Registry is up and running. Sign up so most telemarketers cannot call you starting October 1st. There are exemptions though, like for charities and political organizations." Note that many of the states which have opened their own registries will be sharing that data with the national list, so you may not have to re-register - check and see what your state is doing.
All I can say is Thank God! More than a simple annoyance in our home lives, the telemarketing industry is a severe drain on the resources of this country. Much like the bureaucracies of Europe (not to mention Canada) which are so widely criticized, the US telemarking industry provides a means of artificial employment for innumerable workers in this country, with people attempting to sell unwanted products in vain, going from job to job as telemarketing franchises are born and die, contributing nothing to the actual economic output of the country. Goodbye telemarketing, and good riddance...
They are supposed to be releasing a phone number to call in after a week (or few). I plan to make use of that myself, as the CT do not call list has served me and my wife quite well. (We only get called once a year from a local sheriff's office asking for money.) The online version no doubt alleviates a flood of call volume from people who aren't so worried about the e-mail address thing, so more power to them.
And as such, that's the exact reason I won't be registering with it at all.
Simply put, it's yet another database being compiled by the government, and to be for such a frivilous matter as telemarketers, I don't see the need.
Do like I do: when I telemarketer calls, put them on hold... and forget about them. Or goof on them, al la Ed Norton in Boiler Room.
+ G to tha Izzo, A to tha Tizee, Talking Giz-oat, Ya'll Bettah Feel Me... +
Shocking!
This is probably a good thing from a certain point of view. If they had tried to restrict political calls, then the whole regulation might have been tossed out on 1st Amendment grounds. It certainly would have clouded the issue, and would have very like have been challenged.
Think about this for a second, folks. You're helping the government compile a list that anyone but 'protected telemarketers' can call. The regular telemarketers have to grab the list, and weed the numbers out of their databases.
Now think about this. The government is supplying a list of telephone numbers. There exists 'protected telemarketers'. If you were a protected telemarketer, what would you do?
You got it. Download the list, and you've got yourself a database of active telephone nubmers to start calling. All for free. "Thanks for giving us your number, chump. Now me and my buddies can call all we want."
Offshore telemarketers and spammers from mining the do not call database? These people are scum anyways, and as long as they are not operating within the US, it seems to me that the US government has just handed them a bonafide list of valid phone and email addresses.
My rights don't need management.
Boy everyone likes to poke fun at the republicans.....well, they may not have had to do that if Clinton would have been taking care of Osama instead of playing with his cigars and Monica Lewinsky. Then again, if his daddy would have taken care of Saddam, we would not had to do it this time.
Then again if the Clinton administration hadn't been hampered by impeachment hearings over blowjobs, maybe they would've dealt with Osama bin Laden. Then again if Reagan hadn't increased covert operations in Afghanistan, the Taliban may not have come to power. Then again if whoever hadn't supported the Shah, then Islamism (NOT Islam) may not have gained such a foothold. Then again if WWI and WWII hadn't happened, then the US wouldn't be such a world power and Sept 11 wouldn't have happened. Then again if the Ottoman empire had truly embraced Westernization, perhaps Europe and by extension the US would be Islamic. Etc, etc, etc... 20/20 hindsight and shoulda-woulda-coulda count for diddly squat.
The truth still stands that the current administration has eroded our civil rights.
Acually, he has a point. When you use someones phone, or use there e-mail, you are invading their property with your e-mail/phone call. They pay for the service, and it is up to them how it should be used. You should not have to allow "anyone" to send you anything into your home BECAUSE you pay for a service. You SHOULD have the right, the liberty, to define what does and does not enter your home. When you watch television you are allowing whatever those people want to come into your home, and it is up to you to decide whether you want to turn it off or not.
When you have a phone you are not requesting the information that people send to you, you are using it as a communications device.
When a company starts sending unsolicited material, in volume, that might be construed as an invasion of property, a denial of service against your phone so to speak.
YOU PAY FOR THE PHONE, you should have the RIGHT to say "i dont want MY phone to be used this way"
because it is YOUR phone, YOUR service.
if someone signed up for a "i dont want to be part of a gallop poll" list then yes by god that person shouldnt have the gallop poll ringing their house.
it is not freedom of speech to FORCE someone to listen to, or receive content. It is freedom of speech to ALLOW someone to say there peice, but it is NOT freedom of speech to make someone listen to it.
That is a captive audience, and thats what telemarkters, TV, and Spammers, all want.
IT IS NOT THE RIGHT of SPAMMERS, TV, TELEMARKTERS to have a captive audience, or even a "partially captive audience" (ie forcing you to at least allow them to try to talk to you). They can send there message as much as they wwant, but they should not necessarilly be allowed to do it using private infrastructure (the phone to your house).
The problem is, TV, spammers, etc, are all trying to get into the mode where it is required you listen to someone elses "free speech" or "corporate speech" so that they can try to sell you products. But it is stupid because once you receive the information you paid for, you should be able to block, stop, or edit it for how YOU want to view it.
but that is becoming illegal, alreayd is illegal in some venues.
This is really a great victory for privacy advocates because it says people can stop others from using their property, and their infrastructure to annoy them without the ability to stop them.
If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion