An appeals court threw out part of a Federal Communications Commission regulation aimed at reducing automated telephone solicitations, weakening a 2015 effort to squelch the scourge of so-called robocalls.
The rule was aimed at calls generated by auto-dialing devices. But its language was too broad, and could be construed to prohibit calls from any smartphone, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in a unanimous opinion Friday.
[...] Unwanted calls, including robocalls, are the top consumer complaint to the FCC, with more than 200,000 such comments received annually, according to the agency. Some private analyses estimate that U.S. consumers received about 2.4 billion robocalls per month in 2016.
[...] Because under the FCC's rule "any uninvited call or message from the device is a statutory violation," regular smartphone users could face a $500 penalty for calls -- such as inviting a person to a party -- without first getting consent to contact them, the judges said.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Saturday March 17 2018, @07:50PM (2 children)
It should be relatively simple to address this, so that wrong numbers and "that drunken jerk who *someone* brought to your last party finagled your phone number so he could worm his way onto the guest list for the next one "cuz you got all the cuties at yo' parties! Especially that brunette with the cute glasses [your wife]. I'd love to bang her!" and suchlike can be addressed ("don't fucking call me, asshole!" and onto the blacklist they go) without resort to criminal penalties.
Just modify as follows:
"any uninvited or unwanted call or message of a commercial nature from the device is a statutory violation,"
Easy peasy. Next!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @09:24PM (1 child)
So political and religious propaganda is ok?
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Saturday March 17 2018, @09:35PM
Yup.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr