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From: linc@tongue1.berkeley.edu (Linc Madison)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Telephone Advertising Consumer Rights Act
Message-ID: <telecom11.426.7@eecs.nwu.edu>
Date: 5 Jun 91 10:57:11 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 426, Message 7 of 10

In article <telecom11.422.1@eecs.nwu.edu> Bill Parrish (bparrish@hprnd.
rose.hp.com) writes:

> Re:  HR1304  (Markey) Bill

> "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?

[No, I'm not a lawyer, but...]  There's an interesting point of
Constitutional law involved.  It turns out that if you have a "NO
SOLICITING" sign on the front of your house, it is entirely legal for
someone to come to your door anyway and solicit you for POLITICAL
purposes, because the First Amendment right of the solicitor to engage
in political speech outweighs the right of the would-not-be solicitee
to discourage it.

 ...or so I was told when I had a summer job soliciting for a  political 
organization (CalPIRG).

Of course, there is the practical consideration that the "yield" from
houses with "NO SOLICITING" signs was rather lower than the incidence
of rather nasty-looking Dobermans growling through the screen door.

Regarding the Florida state tax on interstate telephone charges,
the Supreme Court ruled about three years ago that it is legal for them
to tax interstate telephone charges, notwithstanding obviously
contradictory clauses of the U.S. Constitution.  I pay the City of
Berkeley 6.5% for my out-of-state calls, although, oddly, it appears
that the State of California hasn't hitched onto this gravy train.


Linc Madison  =  linc@tongue1.berkeley.edu