California forced to defend 'junk fax' law

California fax machine owners tired of watching junk faxes eat up their toner cartridges and paper will have to wait a little longer for relief.

A law designed to ban marketers from sending unsolicited faxes was set to take effect in California on Jan. 1, 2006, but SB 833 is being held up in court after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a legal challenge.

In a joint effort with fax company Xpedite Systems, the Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit in Sacramento federal court and on Wednesday won an injunction that will stay the law at least until Jan. 31, 2006. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 23.

At issue is California's decision to write a tougher law than the Junk Fax Prevention Act passed by the U.S. Congress last summer. The federal law allows companies to send faxes to people or businesses they have had prior business dealings with, but the California law doesn't.

Even "if you've been doing business with someone for years, then you have to take on some significant costs to comply with (the California) law," said Amar Sarwal, general litigation counsel for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit business advocacy group. "We think this will make it hard on small- and middle-size business and maybe some larger ones."

Ironically, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was among the biggest backers of the federal anti-junk-fax law. In recent years, the U.S. government has tried to respond to the nation's fax machine owners, who have blamed higher paper and ink costs on the blizzard of junk faxes they receive.

State Senator Debra Bowen, a Democrat, says the federal law doesn't go far enough to protect fax machine owners. Allowing marketers an exemption just because they say they had a prior relationship with someone is no good unless they can prove it, she asserts.

"In the federal law, there is no requirement for anyone to demonstrate that a prior business relationship existed," Bowen said. "Anyone could say, 'I had a business dealing with someone way back when,' and we'd have to take them at their word."

Both California and federal laws allow recipients of illegal faxes to sue the sender. If a court finds that a sender willfully or knowingly violated the law, it can award a recipient up to $1,500 per violation.

Bowen said she's confident that California is on sound legal footing and that Americans from across the country would support such a law.

"I've received zero calls from anyone demanding their constitutional right to receive more junk faxes," she said.

[Earl Benser]

Put the screws ....

... to the faxers. Spammers already claim they are just responding
to requests for information as they dump their crap on the web. We
have a law stopping unwanted callers which seems to work. My own
experiences with unwanted faxes is that I never got one that there
was even a remote chance of my response. They were peddling
junk, and using up my fax paper. If anypne's business gets
crippled, it's a junk operation that should be crippled, and fast!!!!

[peter noble--2008]

just throw the screws out

We got so tired of junk faxes, as well as the general unreliability of
a rather tired and obsolete technology, that we just threw out the
machine (we also save money by not having the extra phone line).
At least with email I can filter.
Our own business seems to run just fine now - and no tears for the
faxers.

[R. U. Sirius]

So let me get this straight

I own a business, and my business has a fax machine, which I own and I paid for. But some low brow marketer claims he has the right to use my machine to send his junk, which I DID NOT request in the first place?

What the hell is wrong with this system? What's next, are they going to try to send me spam dreams while I sleep? This is ridiculous. California is right with this law, and the US Chamber should stuff it.

[Jerry Dawson]

My nightmare

I got rid of my fax machine years ago.. it's a waste of space if you have a PC. My nightmare here in Italy are Telcos that call on average once a day touting whatever. I used to be polite and listen... of late, I'm ashamed to say, the moment I realise that it's anybody touting anything they get a two words (well, five in Italian - similar meaning) and the phone slammed down.

I'd suggest you fax the spammers back with a suitable reply, but you can bet they're far too savvy to waste paper and ink on junk.

[thenet411]

Small businesses have two options...

First, get fax software for your PC and connect the fax line to it (most PCs come with fax management software pre-installed). When faxes come in, you have the option to look at the fax on the screen before you print it (if you even need to print legit faxes).
-OR-
Simply leave the FAX machine off until a legitimate person that wants to fax you calls and says that they want to fax you something.
Really simple steps. Not rocket science, costs you nothing.

[guillermopelotas]

Re: Small businesses have two options...

In response to Thomas Miller's brilliant post:

If there?s a bunch of murderers out there, who have predictably and systematically been found to show up to people?s doors and shoot homeowners, there are two simple solutions:
First, spend a couple of thousand dollars and get flak jackets and surveillance equipment. When the doorbell rings, you have the option of looking at your monitor before you open your door.
-OR-
Simply leave your lights off and don?t open the door until a legitimate person that wants to come over calls and gets your permission first.
Really simple steps. Not rocket science, costs you nothing.

**OR**

If there are people causing a nuisance and breaking laws, we can quit blaming the victims and put the burden back on those who are causing the trouble. It doesn?t matter how much you know, how much you use something or why you?re doing it?use of technology is not an invitation to be abused or an allowance to do the abusing.


Miller's original thoughtful post:
First, get fax software for your PC and connect the fax line to it (most PCs come with fax management software pre-installed). When faxes come in, you have the option to look at the fax on the screen before you print it (if you even need to print legit faxes).
-OR-
Simply leave the FAX machine off until a legitimate person that wants to fax you calls and says that they want to fax you something.
Really simple steps. Not rocket science, costs you nothing.

[Clouseau2]

Yes they do

Wow, turn off the FAX machine until you get a legitimate fax ... Never thought of that, brilliant!

But this could be used to fight spam too! Companies could just turn off your e-mail access, and when you get a legitimate e-mail, turn it on. No more spam!

[ajbright]

who cares..

exactly why should I care about these jerks going out of business?

If my fax machine is constantly clogged up with crap and my clients can't get through - therefore costing me my business, what recourse do I have?

As far as I'm concerned, not only should this law stay, but the penalties should be large enough to put anyone who does this into bankruptcy.

[KemApak]

Enough!

I do live in California. I do not have and never had a fax machine, I am getting between 3 to 10 junk faxes starting 6:00AM to 8:00PM everyday in my voicemail. I call my phone company, and FCC! They do not care. And interestingly, I started to get these calls the next day I got my phone number. So these companies are sending junk to every number that they can find. They do not care if it is a business or person.

I hope that these companies will be heavily fined, and owners should be penalized.

Ethics and respect to other people's rights, privacy should be the first rule of doing business.

Why can't we apply the do not call list to faxes as well?

Cheers,

Kem Apak

[Ron Stark]

Stop junk faxes

I have, in more that 25 years in business, to receive an unsolicited
fax worth receiving. This is nuts. We have to keep our fax turned
off most of the time just to thwart the clowns who send us wasteful
messages eating up our expensive resources. Junk email isn't any
different than junk faxes. We should have a passkey for faxers.

Please keep the junk fax law in place.

Enough already.

[Steve Jordan]

What's the big whoop?

It amazes me how people will complain about 5-6 junk faxes a day, but they say nothing about the mountains of junk mail they receive, totalling up 20 times (or more) the paper resources that faxes waste. Using a computer to receive faxes allows you to screen them before printing, deleting what you don't want, and you won't waste paper (or time).

[manwi]

Junk Faxes On Home Phone at 3 AM No Big Whoop?

I barely get any junk mail because I am on these opt out lists.
However, receiving faxes at all hours on your home phone number
especially when you do not have a fax is a big whoop.

[TomBeckman]

A way to stop most junk faxes

Have your carrier configure your fax line to reject all calls that don't provide their caller ID information. This costs me about $5.00 per month, but we get almost no junk faxes as a result.

[fear_and_loathing]

Do you

Fax the SNOT out of the ones that DO get through?

[fear_and_loathing]

Forget the faxers...

The companies who HIRE the faxers should be fined!
A fine for every fax sent would make them think twice about this
kind of aggressive advertising.
The faxers (or at least the faxing) will fade away.
Kill the head and the body will die!

[maxinatlanta]

Stop Junk Mail. I did. It costs nothing but 10 minutes of my time.

http://awakening.weebly.com/stop-junk-mail.html

Together we can make a difference.

Thanks,

Max.

[maxinatlanta]

Stop Junk Mail. I did. It costs nothing but 10 minutes of my time.

http://awakening.weebly.com/stop-junk-mail.html

Together we can make a difference.

Thanks,

Max.