DR>    Now please tell me why I am on their list in the first place?  
 
You fax number is on a CD of Business fax numbers.
 
 DR> Since the line that my fax machine is on has only been installed for 
 DR> less than 3 weeks and only 4 of my clients have 
 DR> that number; I have to 
 DR> assume that these guys are either one of the several who call every 
 DR> number in a given geographic area and when they get a fax or computer 
 DR> tone, they make a note of it or they purchase such 
 DR> data from those who 
 DR> do.  A very annoying practice!
Chances are that you fax number was previously someone else's fax number.  
The commercial lists of fax numbers are nearly always months behind reality.  
No one has time to call every number in any locality (except for phone rooms 
of telephone solicitors working for slave wages - and they have to show a 
certain number of sales every day to earn enough to pay those slave wages, 
which isn't possible with broadcast faxing).  The CD or disc of business fax 
numbers is used by a company that sells multi-media advertising.  For X 
amount of dollars you buy advertising which includes newspapers, flyers, 
coupons books, door hangers, and faxes.  The advertiser puts the disc in the 
computer, sets to target the type of businesses wanted by the customer, and 
cranks out a list of X number in such and such an area (done by exchange 
identifier) and fires of so many thousand per day.  You're thinking people 
have much more time to spend fiddling around than anyone really does.  doing 
it the way you envision would mean only contacting a few hundred businesses.  
Broadcast fax has to contact several thousand a day to break even.  You can't 
even dial that quickly, never mind hunt up numbers.
 DR>    Now I just finished reading PL 102-243 (47 USCA 
 DR> s.227).  It CLEARLY 
 DR> states that sending an unsolicited fax is against the law and I am 
 DR> entitled to damages ($500.00 minimum). In fact the actual language 
 DR> reads: "to use any telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other 
 DR> device to send an unsolicited advertisement to a telephone facsimile 
 DR> machine; or..."
If it is totally against the law in your state, go for it.  In most places 
giving you the option of having your number removed from that advertiser's 
list is all it takes to prove no intent, and negates your case if you didn't 
take the option to tell them a polite "no thanks"
 DR>    And what lesson does it teach the children to allow lawbreakers to 
 DR> run free, thumb their noses at the law, and make a profit while doing 
 DR> so?
If they are breaking the law in your state, the law has provision for you to 
make a mature response and set a good example to your offspring.
 DR>    Some folks call the cops on lawbreakers.  Others dish it back at 
 DR> them to show that they will not be victims.  Either way, justice will 
 DR> be done.
Dishing it back also shows that you don't mind breaking the law when it suits 
you.
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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