THIS LINE IS MINE - CONSUMERS PROPERTY-RIGHTS TO TELEPHONE LINES IN OUTBOUND TELEMARKETING

On the issue of regulating outbound telemarketing abuses, this paper p roposes a new perspective of recognizing telephone lines as a property of consumers. Philosophically, current approaches to the issue based on privacy and fraud are inadequate to justify the regulation of telem arketers. in implementation, self-regulation and existing governmental measures have both failed to deter malpractices of telemarketers. Tel emarketing is argued to be a legitimate means of communication, so we need to compromise the conflict between the right of telemarketers' ac cess to consumers and consumers' property rights to telephone lines. M aking telemarketing calls should be recognized as a privilege, and lic ensing of telemarketers is proposed as a solution.