what some guy in California started doing years ago. Can't remember his name, but I do remember a 60 minutes story (or some news magazine) about him. Years ago, you didn't "own" a telephone - you leased it from whomever was your telephone company. For some time people have been purchasing their own telephones. This guy would find out who was calling him and then say, "Thank you very much for using my property to sell your product. I decline its purchase. However, you have just incurred a fee of $25.00 for using my property to market your product." The guy would send them an invoice and if they didn't pay, sue them in Small Claims Court. He won every single time.

A better law would be something to that effect. The teleco's know who the telemarketing firms are, they could easily credit our telephone bills each and every time a telemarketing firm used our property to market their product(s). Then the teleco's could add that amount to the telemarketing firms telephone bill, in a similar fashion to what they used to do with 900 numbers.

Of course, this won't happen because the teleco's make HUGE money from telemarketing firms. But, it is a better idea than a "Don't call list", imo, because I cannot think of an objection to charging some one for the use of your property to market their product. Billboards do it, cable tv providers do it, radio does it, etc. why not the little guy?