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Appeals Court OKs FTC's Do-Not-Call List
GTRacer writes "The USA Today website just posted a report that the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals (Denver) has upheld the FTC's national Do Not Call registry. In their decision, the Court found the list to be 'a valid commercial speech regulation...without burdening an excessive amount of speech.' The telemarketers had challenged the constitutionality of blocking commercial free speech while allowing charities and select others to continue phone solicitation. Interestingly enough, 'Officials in the telemarketing industry did not immediately return calls seeking comment.' Isn't it now obvious these people have a double-standard when it comes to reaching out and touching someone?" The court's decision is available to read.
"Companies can telemarket to anyone who has bought, leased or rented something from them within the last 18 months, or to anyone who has inquired about or applied for something with them within the last three months.
It also exempts long-distance phone companies and airlines; banks and credit unions; and insurance companies operating under state regulation.
You could drive a truck full of mailing lists through that loophole. I am sure they will come up with something....
Happy Trails!
Erick
http://www.busyweather.com/
Looks like somebody in the industry wasn't willing to cough up enough cash to get the decision over turned.
Since I have put my number on the do not call list I can eat dinner in peace. If those companies want to communicate their commercial interests with me, they can write a letter or buy an add on TV. The constant ringing of the phone is too invasive.
But you are correct in that the judge wrapped up the argument in such a way that it gave telemarketing some sort of limited right which had to be weighed against the benefits of limiting calls.
The real bummer is still the judge in Denver(?) ruled that the list was unconstitutional in the first place. If the appellate judge earned a "C" then the district judge gets an "F-".
I have always been annoyed at the telemarketing industry's arguments as to why they should be able to do this. They have always maintained that it was free speech. What they fail to realize is that it is free speech that I have to pay for! Sure, I would have a phone anyway, but basically they are wasting my money. If they want to market on the street corner, go right ahead because that truly is free speech (obviously within limits) but when you come into my home on the telephone line I am paying for, then it crosses the line and that is not free speech.
This leads me to another thought. I have always wondered why the telemarketing industry doesn't pay for people's phone lines in return for getting phone spam. ISP's do it, why not here?
No trees were harmed in the composition of this; however, numerous electrons were inconvenienced.
Will any of these "laws" work? By the look of all these Anti-Spam efforts, nothing seems to work, so how does this differ?
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
My state's Do-Not-Call List has kept my phone blissfully silent for the last year or so. But the various DNC List laws have several loopholes. Perhaps the worst is the political campaign loophole. Worse yet, many of those campaigns are using automated responders which simply play a recording if you (or your answering machine) answers. Our primary is today, over the last three days I've gotten a half dozen unwelcome political calls and a dozen hung up calls that I can only guess are predictive dialers. For a phone that normally rings one a week this was a huge irritation. At least they haven't started calling my cell phone (yet).
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One example of this already:
In our local shopping mall there is a shiny new car parked in the walkway. Next to it is a box with a pile of "entry forms" on the top of it, enticing people to enter to win a new car, or a pile of cash or whatever.
When you read the fine print on the back of the card, you find that by filling out the card, you are giving them and anyone they feel like sharing it with permission to contact you via phone or mail.
I just wonder what would happen if someone filled out one of these for me (being on the Do Not Call list) without my knowledge or permission, and they contacted me. Hmm...
You probably shouldn't click this.
Don't think that the telemarketters don't know their own business.
I used to work for an outsourced Telemarketing company. (Not that I am proud of it)
DNC lists are just another list of numbers that you scrub against. Most clients have HUGE lists of numbers and don't want all of them called on a particular campaign. You also have to scrub continously based on timezone, regional activities (I.E. calling during a hurricane is usually not appreciated), local, state and now the federal DNC lists.
They are NOT difficult to manage. What is difficult is finding enough good numbers to call during a shift. That is a different matter, and one that I have no sympathy for.
As much as I am annoyed by telemarketing, spam and all sort of other unsolicited products/services, I am dubious about this. I'm all for the Do-not-call list, but in this case telemarketers do have a point. Why allow charities and not them? The only reason so few people are complaining (even here on /.) is that most people are annoyed by telemarketing. If this was about a more neutral service, there would be serious complaints.
A better approach would be a do-not-call list with options: 1 option for "do not call me at all", and another option with "do not call me, but still allow charities", or something in this matter. This would give power to individual consumer, and remove any validity from telemarketers complaints.
The purpose of life is to find the purpose of life.
All this national DNC list buisness is an epilogue. The real meat-and-potatoes is in a 1991 law making all but the most carefully scripted and trained telemarketing campaigns illegal (only about 2% of calls I received last year could be considered legal). Best of all the law provides a minimum of $500 per call to the consumer that falls victim.
Don't believe me? Google for Telephone Consumer protection Act, or TCPA, you will find dozens of how-to sites, and even some lists of cases sucessfully collected. (I'm still working on my site, someday appearing at noroutetohost.net) Cases can be filed in small claims for usually less than $50 (which is added to the judgment anyway), and by filling out a simple one-page form.
I have already deposited $4,500 and am in the process of collecting $9,000 more, for what I can't imagine is more than about 40 hours of research/filing/court appearances total ( > $100/hour!). You might be suprised how satisfying it is to watch a telemarketer cut you a check right in the courtroom...
These calls are illegal, but they make them anyway, because the law is written so that only the consumer with the phone can take any action to enforce the law (e.g. collect money), and almost no consumers do. If you don't like these kinds of calls you might consider changing that.
Usage: fortune -P [-f] -a [xsz] Q: file [rKe9] -v6[+] file1
Check out The Corporation- this documentary argues effectively that if we are going to treat corporations as legal "people" then we can also evaluate their behavior as "people". Corporations are pyschopathic and should have their charters revoked before they do any more damage. (www.thecorporation.org)
I'm not just being paranoid- I've seen the data.