House Votes to Launch Do-Not-Call List

Zendar writes "Yahoo! has a story on how it took less than an hour with a final vote of 412-8 to approve the 'do not call list'. "Votes to overturn the judge's order are expected mid-afternoon in both chambers, according to Republican leadership aides." The President is expected to sign today. Some choice quotes: "Fifty million Americans can't be wrong." and "This bill will pass faster than a consumer hanging up on a telemarker at dinner time." CNN also has the story."

Comments

Regulations

[The Old Burke]

Sad to see that the House is so easily influenced by popular media bias and don't make up their own mind on the issue instead. It's clear that the F.T.C. has been engaging in regulatory imperialism and ruled outside it's area. Why not then let the court decide the case?

Several analysts have ponted out that this coud mean milions of lost jobs in an important industry.
From NyTimes:

He also said the industry would like to work with the government to find a solution acceptable to telemarketers and consumers.

Common, why not call a spade a spade. Everyone knows that this could mean the end off telemarketing as an economical way of doing bussiness. A do-not-call registry will lead to those people that don't wnt to list themselfs in such a Big-brother registry will get more incoming calls, and since they can't buy as much as the whole population eventually they will have to lower themselves to a level where they must sign up to this list.
Several analysts have ponted out that this coud mean milions of lost jobs in an important industry.

While many of us don't like people selling us things we don't like but thats capiatalism you know.

Re:Representative government?

[The Old Burke]

Hopefully voters will remember how well the dissenting congressmen "represented" them the next time they go to the polls.

I do think that those people that will loose their jobs because of this will remember this too.

"Representative government" goes both ways.

Re:How warm and fuzzy..

[The Old Burke]

50% of the population do have an IQ below average too; that does NOT lead to the other 50% being smart.

Just because 50 million people have used P2P software that does not make it less unethical or illegal.

I'm an okie

[wmaker]

I'm an okie, and i agree with judges decision. I'm not saying i want these people to call me, but they do employ millions of people, and they have the right to speech.

Re:Representative government?

[0111 1110]

I don't recall signing some kind of agreement saying that anyone can call me at anytime in order to harass me until I give them money. I believe that crank calls are illegal in my state. Telemarketers are simply a subset of harassing phone calls, but a far more serious one due to their sheer numbers. The amount of unhappiness that they cause cannot be underestimated.

If you would be so kind as to post your home telephone number here on slashdot, I'm sure that quite a few people would be willing to exercise their right to speak with you about this in person. I can't see why you should object since it sounds like you may have the ringer turned off on your phone anyway. Always a good precaution in this world of rude, uncaring folk who believe that their "rights" are so much more important than yours.

I hope you are at least consistent and believe that crank calls and death threats and bomb threats should be perfectly legal as long as they are done over the phone, since you can just turn that ringer off. It's your own fault for answering, right? Freedom of Speech, right?