Legal Issues

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick




Telemarketers Sue To Stop FTC Do-Not-Call List

from the nice-try,-but... dept

Telemarketers are up in arms about the proposed FTC do-not-call list that would have telemarketers fined for calling people who didn't want to hear from them. They're now suing the FTC to block such a list, saying it's a violation of their free speech rights, and also that it would discriminate against an industry that supplies millions of jobs. Of course, I'm not sure what's illegal about the jobs part of it. I'm sure that the drug industry employs millions as well, but that doesn't mean the government doesn't try to slow them down, also. I'm also not convinced of their free speech rights either. They're certainly allowed to say what they want. This list just means they cannot chose to interrupt and bother these people in their homes. That's not taking away anyone's free speech rights at all.

4 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments

(Flattened / Threaded)

    Jan 30th, 2003 @ 6:50am
  • Your rights have a range

    by Oliver Wendell Jones

    Your rights extend only until the point their intersect someone else's rights.

    You have a legal right to swing your arms wildly around. That right stops the moment someone enters the range of your arms and could be struck.

    You have a legal right to play your music as loud as you want. That right stops as soon as someone who doesn't want to hear your music at that volume enters the area where the music can be heard.

    You have a legal right to talk and say whatever you want. That right stops as soon as you try to talk to someone who doesn't want to hear from you.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Jan 30th, 2003 @ 8:18am
    • Re: Your rights have a range

      by Joe Schmoe

      Well said.

      I'ts amazing, and distressing, that people don't understand that the right to free speech is just that, not a right to be heard.

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    Jan 30th, 2003 @ 10:28am
  • Give em a federal grant...

    by thecaptain

    to buy a clue..

    You'd THINK that these people would love to be able to easily AVOID people who don't want to hear from them (to instead focus on those who do...or those who don't care enough either way to get on the list)...

    Hmm...I think that's the key word...THINK. Greed kills braincells methinks.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Sep 2nd, 2003 @ 5:34pm
  • telemarketers suing the fcc

    by valerie burrus

    this is against the constituional rights of americans and it puts millions out of business. we are not low life scum which was on publix.com with chopping heads off blood going everywhere to major violence on the phone.This is an outrage of freedom of speech. We might as well have stalon or hussein here or go back to the communist party when Hitler was in office. If Americans i use that lightly if they react to this what is the difference between terrorists and so called Americans. I see no differnce.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now.
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML
Save me a cookie
  • Plain Text: A CRLF will be replaced by break <br> tag, all other allowable HTML is intact
  • HTML: No formatting of any kind is done without explicitly being written in
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <p> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
Close
Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now.
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie

Search Techdirt
And now, a word from our Sponsors..



Subscribe to Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Related Stories
Close
E-mail It