Pulling the Plug on Nuisance Calls.

• Position: Brief Article

Many Americans have experienced it--a telephone call at dinnertime from a telemarketer trying to sell them something. Lots of people hate them, but the legitimate business practices of most telemarketers are protected under certain constitutional provisions.

By one estimate, the 10 largest telemarketing agencies in America have the ability to make 560 random telephone calls per second. But many Americans consider unsolicited sales calls a nuisance and an invasion of privacy.

Arkansas, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas have statutes that prohibit firms from soliciting people over the telephone if the consumers' names appear on a "do-not-call" list.

These lists are often similar to the national do-not-call databases and databases created and maintained by state attorneys general or by telemarketing firms.

The primary intent of the first do-not-call law, passed in Florida, was to protect the elderly.

Within one month of passing similar legislation, more than 180,000 New Yorkers had signed the registry blocking unwanted calls. Under the New York law, residents register their telephone numbers on an official do-not-call list. The law requires all telemarketing firms that make calls in New York to buy a copy of this list, and fines the firms $2,000 each time they call a number on the list. Since...