I used to work in telemarketing when I was a freshman in college. The job sucked and only lasted a month, but it paid $11/hour for p/t work. People would scream,curse and hang up on us. The ruder people were to me, the more calling lists I added their name to. Yep, if you notice that you get a million telemarketing calls a day, chances are you were a dick to one that called you in the past. If you get calls real early in the morning on weekends or later at night--then you were an incredible asshole to someone before. Even back then, we had access to a database that we could add names to nationwide call lists for everything you could imagine. Paul, so when you are nailing the neighbors wife, do you really find yourself interrupted by the ringing phone? A plane could crash into my house, and it wouldn't stop me from finishing the job.

On another topic, Sean K. dying of cancer so young and so quickly is sad. It just goes to show you, that no matter how young you are (and healthy you think you are), you still need to have a yearly physical. Early detection is the key to treating and surviving cancer.

Whenever I am called by a telemarketer I do one of two things: 1) tell them Mr. JC is dead or 2)give the phone to my 2-yr old.

Here is the part I don't understand. I will make the assumption that every person who put their phone number on the do-not-call list will NEVER make a purchase from telemarketing. That is why they want their number taken off. If they want something, they will actively pursue the purchase. So why would the telemarketing industry even want to waste time and resources calling these people who will not make purchases?

From a marketing perspective, this is a great way for the telemarketers to focus on the numbers that have a better possibility of resulting in a sale. If you narrowed the list down by 50 million numbers, you can more efficiently hire employees based on the number of remaining phone numbers on telemarketing lists. The companies will not expend phone fees and labor costs for pursuing dead leads. They should favor this list.

Cory makes a really good marketing point about the "do not call list". I work in sales and do not want to waste my time, effort or the company's money marketing where it is not lucrative. I don't care what any telemarketing advocate tells you, but the bottom line is that they do prey on the elderly. People like us who do not want our older relatives taken advantage of any further, can have them added to the "do not call list" without their knowledge(I put my own grandmother on it and never told her). The telemarketing industry knows this, and we are taking it upon ourselves to eliminate a chunk of their profits. Anyone who calls my grandmother can talk her into sending them money, so I added her to the list. What she doesn't know won't hurt her, and she is better off. She is home all day long to take every single friggin' phone call from these people.

Did you notice where the 5 year old bong maker was from? Australia, and a Northern Territorian, no less. If it had been a Tasmanian, all of our worst prejudices really would have been confirmed...

It seems that a judge had considered that a "telemarketing free speech" goes over privacy. My conclusion is when money of big sales money is involved anything is possible.

We are suffering a variation of tele-attack. Since telemarketing, is not an efficient sales technique here, they concentrate on elderly people, which they presume is "easier". I do think that the "please no calls" lists are a very good idea that should come over here

It seems that a judge had considered that a "telemarketing free speech" goes over privacy. My conclusion is when money of big sales money is involved anything is possible.

We are suffering a variation of tele-attack. Since telemarketing, is not an efficient sales technique here, they concentrate on elderly people, which they presume is "easier". I do think that the "please no calls" lists are a very good idea that should come over here