From: "Cynthia H. Brown" <cynthb@sonetis.com>
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 16:11:04 -0800 (PST)
To: "Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>
Subject: Re: More on digital postage
Message-ID: <199702170011.QAA08626@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Sat, 15 Feb 1997 at 23:30:17 Timothy C. May wrote:

> At 1:09 AM -0500 2/16/97, Cynthia H. Brown wrote:
> 
> >Here in Canada, the CRTC (Canadian Radio & Telecomms Commission) put
> >out rules limiting the time of day, etc. for phone spam (voice or
> >fax).  Does anyone out there have the specifics of the CRTC regs?
> 
> "Spam" has rapidly become one of those overused, overloaded, meaningless
> words. Everything bad on the Net these days is labelled "spam."
> 
> For the phone example in Canada, just what is "spam"?
>
> -- Is it the semi-traditional definition of "spam," i.e., a phone call made
> to thousands of sites? (At the same time? Sequentially? How?)
> 
> -- Is it a robo-dialer, with no human at the other end?
> 
> -- Or is it merely an "unwanted phone call"?

I used "spam" to mean scripted commercial solicitations, by a human
or robot, based on a list of names and numbers.  I'm not sure whether
this is the same definition as in the legislation. 

> As I see it, the danger of criminalizing "unwanted phone calls" is obvious.
> (Though obviously the courts and prisons are not about to be filled up with
> people who committed the heinous crime of making an unrequested phone call.)
> 
> The danger of all "junk mail" and "junk phone call" laws is that they give
> power to the government to decide on what is junk and what is not.

My understanding is that the legislation restricts commercial 
solicitations by phone to:

- certain times of day (not after 9 PM? unsure)
- one initial call, and no follow-ups if the person explicitly asks
the caller to never phone this number again (again, unsure of legal
details)

I don't consider this scenario overly restrictive, since it gives
_them_ a chance to sell their product, and _me_ a chance to have them
delete my name from their database.  Unfortunately, without some
formal means of redress, very few telemarketers seem to remember that
they are unlikely to find new customers if they call at 7 AM Saturday
for the third time this month.

What means of redress would you suggest, in the absence of
legislation / fines, to someone who has been called repeatedly by a
telemarketer?  This person is not a current customer and so cannot
withdraw his/her business.

Cynthia
===============================================================
                   Cynthia H. Brown, P.Eng.
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