Computer Communication Acts
Carla Brooks
BIS/ 220
October 8, 2012
Professor W. Paul Borowski

Have you ever been sitting at home at dinnertime and the phone rings? Everyone jumps to get the phone; on the other end of the line is a person trying to sell you windows, doors, or something else. It is one of the most annoying phones calls of the day because, that is the time of day that everyone is sitting down and relaxing and being a family. There are two acts in place to help with the calls from telemarketers. Unfortunately, there are rules to every act and they may not stop all telemarketing calls but will help with them. One act is the “Do not Call Implementation Act of 2003” and the other is the “Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 also known as the United States Congress passed TCPA in 1991. President George H. W. Bush signed act and passed as a law but it was a revision of the Communications Act of 1934. The TCPA act helps with the restricting telephone calls from solicitors and the use of automated telephone equipment. As time progress and new advancements made in the communication world amendments’ will continue to made to these types of acts. In 1991, Congress passed the TCPA due to the advancement in communication technologies such as the automatic dialing systems, artificial or prerecorded voice messages, SMS text messages, and fax machines. (Wikipedia, 2012) The advances in communication that brought about this amendment were mainly the use of the automatic dialing system. “The automatic dialing system is an electronic device or software that automatically dials telephone numbers. Once a call has been answered the auto dialer either plays a recorded message or connects the call to a live person.” (Wikipedia, 2012) When automatic dialers connect to live people it considered real-time.