There are definitely some good things that are actually starting in cyberspace and bleeding back into realspace. For example, anti-spam laws, software, and thinking has led to a lot of real world thinking on phone and snail-mail spam. One great step forward will be the FTC’s new No-Call List. This is very similar to Florida’s list, which should be deprecated now that the nationwide list is in effect, and is definitely something most people will be interested.
Basically, what this means for you is that you can put your phone number on a nation-wide list that telemarketers are forbidden from calling. Any telemarketer is required to get the list and verify they are not calling those numbers, or be subject to a fine. Very nice. No more lazy saturday mornings of sleep disrupted by a rude long-distance or other such nonsense phone call.
My brother and I got my parents the Telezapper http://www.telezapper.com/ that is advertised about a million times a day on cable and have been very surprised with how well it has worked. We still get calls, but probably 10% of the number we did before installing it.
It will be interesting to see if the FTC’s list passes its consitutionality review, or has it already done that? I know that telemarketers are fighting it, saying it’s a limitation of their free speech or some other such bullshit.
Left by John on May 28th, 2003
ya phone sam is bad cause it sucks
Left by Bryan on November 19th, 2003
About the 214.279.0990 unsolicited call, a better solution might be to submit a complaint on the do not call page:
https://www.donotcall.gov/Complain/ComplainCheck.aspx
Left by anon on January 31st, 2006