Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Mon, 3 Jun 91 12:57:45 PDT From: bparrish Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Telephone Advertising Consumer Rights Act (HR1 Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 422, Message 1 of 11 Lines: 58 Re: HR1304 (Markey) Bill If anyone is interested in getting a copy of the bill, just give a call to your congressman ... I did so last week, and have a copy on my desk right now. The bill basically sets up a database that telemarketers must query before calling to sell things ... anyone who wants to can request to be in the database indicating that they do not wish to receive unsolicited sales calls. Much of the text deals with the FCC's responsibility to figure out how to set up and pay for the database. Interesting points ... It includes lots of rules about faxes ... "Telephone Solicitation" is defined as "the initiation of a telephone message for the purpose of encouraging a person to purchase, rent, or invest in property, goods, or services without that person's prior express invitation or permission". Note the exclusion of fund-raising. Maybe the politicians still want to be able to do it themselves? There is a restriction making it unlawful to "...use any automatic dialing system to make unsolicited calls -- (A) To any emergency telephone line or pager of any hospital, medical physician or service office, health care facility, or fire protection or law enforcement agency; or (B) to any telephone number assigned to paging or cellular telephone service" Notably missing from this are non-emergency lines in hospitals (i.e. patient rooms) although I suppose a hospital could list all their patient rooms on the "restricted" database. I personally know of a case of a telemarketeer making a call to a labor room at a local hospital ... my wife was labor coach for a friend and told the telemarketer to go soak his head. Autodialers must state the identity of the company making the call, and "when technically practible (given the limitations of the telephone exchange service facilities) after the called party hangs up, automatically create a disconnect signal or on-hook condition which allows the called party's line to be released." The bill is 12 pages long,(double-spaced) and makes pretty interesting reading. I personally would prefer that "solicitation" included fund-raising. I don't know the status of the bill wrt committees and whatnot, except what is on the cover "referred to the Committee on Enery[sic] and Commerce"... but it's kind of fun to finally see something in writing. Bill Parrish (bparrish@hprnd.rose.hp.com) HP Roseville CA