On the heels of the oh-so-effective CAN-SPAM Act of a year or two ago (the one that (a) didn't do a thing to stop real spam, but (b) gave vendors rules they could use to legally spam people), we now have the Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005 (S.714).
The purpose of this bill is to fix a bad FCC ruling. We agree with the purpose and the approach.
But in the process of "restoring," they are adding a brand new "exemption" to the TCPA that was never there before to allow advertisers to legally send you advertising by fax WITHOUT your prior consent. They thought they had this before and now 14 years later discovered that they hadn't had it so they want it to cover themselves even though none of the witnesses that testified at the committee hearing on this bill have ever been sued (e.g., the person from NAR with 1.2 million members says they send faxes to member, the members send faxes to their client, etc. and nobody has ever been sued).
The way they are doing this is to allow unlimited faxing of ads (until you get sick enough of it to complain and your complaint meets certain requirements) if you have an "Existing Business Relationship," but the definition of an EBR is so loose that it will be trivial for junk faxers to establish an EBR with virtually any business or consumer. A spammer can establish an EBR with your company just by visiting your website, calling your phone, or sending an email (provided someone replies, even an auto-responder). That gives them the right to LEGALLY send advertising to your fax machine.
Not only that, the current bill creates a never-ending EBR, so they can junkfax you forever until you opt out. So someone who spoke with you 20 years ago can legally send you junk faxes as soon as this bill passes. And, like spam, once you've opted out, you've just proven that it's a real fax number and you look at your faxes ... now your number is more valuable to sell to others.
Want to be that there will be an exception for the US Government (or at least Congress) to that particular exemption?
(via J-Walk)
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