As of Tuesday, October 7, Americans can again sign up for the national do-not-call list to fend off unwanted phone solicitations after a federal appeals court allowed the government to fully punish errant telemarketers at least for now. FTC Chairman Timothy Muris called the latest ruling a victory for American consumers and said his agency will return to enforcing the list.

If you want to be OFF the lists of telemarketers: go to: http://www.donotcall.gov  This site should be up and running very soon.

The court fight isn't finished. The appeals court said the FTC can run the registry while a challenge from telemarketers winds its way through the courts. Oral arguments are scheduled in Tulsa, Okla., on Nov. 10.

On September 25, 2003, the U.S. District Court in Denver ruled that the National Do Not Call Registry provisions of the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) violate the First Amendment, and prohibited the FTC from implementing the registry.

California State Attorney General Bill Lockyer and Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar on September 30 filed a "friend of the court" brief on behalf of the Attorneys General from 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, urging the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Court to stay a Denver federal judge's ruling blocking the National Do Not Call program established by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

"This is a matter of residential privacy, not commercial telemarketers' alleged free speech rights," Salazar said. "If residents do not want to be called by commercial telemarketers, they should not have to suffer receiving those calls in their homes."

No matter what the final outcome, you can still limit telemarketing calls by asking a company to put you on its own Do Not Call list. The FTC, the Federal Communications Commission (FTC), and their state partners will enforce this provision.

Write down the name of the company and the date that you asked to be put on its Do Not Call list. You should not receive further calls from that company. This provision of the Telemarketing Sales Rule is still in force. The FTC, the FCC, and their state partners are committed to enforcing the company-specific provisions of the Rule.

The company-specific Do Not Call rules apply to all telemarketing calls, including calls from companies with which you have done business and telemarketing calls on behalf of charities.

The importance of the right to privacy in one's own home was made clear by the fact that more than 50 million phone numbers were registered on the FTC's list, and by how quickly Congress and the President acted to pass a law re-authorizing the Federal Trade Commission to create a national registry of phone numbers and bring actions against businesses that violate the privacy protection provided by the list.

Unfortunately, there have been some who have tried to take advantage of consumers so you should be careful and check the legitimacy of Do Not Call lists to protect your privacy and personal information. The California Attorney General already has shut down a bogus operation where scam artists sought to take illegal advantage of consumers. The FCC also has issued a consumer alert on identity theft scams taking improper advantage of Do Not Call registry programs. Never give out personal or financial information, and there is no charge for legitimate registry.