Communications Act of 1934
| Communications Act of 1934 | |
|---|---|
| Short Title | Communications Act of 1934 |
| Official Text | Communications Act of 1934 |
| Country/Jurisdiction | United States |
| State or Province | |
| Regulatory Bodies | |
| Date Enacted | 1934 |
| Scope of the Law | Cable Operator, Cable Service, Customers |
| Information | |
| Taxonomy | Aggregation, Breach of Confidentiality, Decisional Interference, Disclosure, Exclusion, Identification, Insecurity, Secondary Use, Surveillance |
| Strategies | |
The Communications Act of 1934 was amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It provides individuals to communicate securely. The Act prevents communication services from using or collecting individuals' personal information. Besides, the personal information shall not be aggregated which means combining various pieces of personal information.
Text of the law
SEC. 201. [47 U.S.C. 201] SERVICE AND CHARGES. Surveillance, Decisional Interference
(a) It shall be the duty of every common carrier engaged in interstate or
foreign communication by wire or radio to furnish such communication service
upon reasonable request therefor; and, in accordance with the orders of the
Commission, in cases where the Commission, after opportunity for hearing, finds
such action necessary or desirable in the public interest, to establish physical
connections with other carriers, to establish through routes and charges applicable
thereto and the divisions of such charges, and to establish and provide facilities and
regulations for operating such through routes.
(b) All charges, practices, classifications, and regulations for and in connection with such communication service, shall be just and reasonable, and any such charge, practice, classification, or regulation that is unjust or unreasonable is hereby declared to be unlawful: Provided, That communications by wire or radio subject to this Act may be classified into day, night, repeated, unrepeated, letter, commercial, press, Government and such other classes as the Commission may decide to be just and reasonable, and different charges may be made for the different classes of comunications: Provided further, That nothing in this Act or in any other provision of law shall be construed to prevent a common carrier subject to this Act from entering into or operating under any contract with any common carrier not subject to this Act, for the exchange of their services, if the Commission is of the opinion that such contract is not contrary to the public interest: Provided further, That nothing in this Act or in any other provision of law shall prevent a common carrier subject to this Act from furnishing reports of positions of ships at sea to newspapers of general circulation, either at a nominal charge or without charge, provided the name of such common carrier is displayed along with such ship position reports. The Commissioner may prescribe such rules and regulations as may be necessary in the public interest to carry out the provisions of this Act.
SEC. 202. [47 U.S.C. 202] DISCRIMINATION AND PREFERENCES. Decisional Interference
(a) It shall be unlawful for any common carrier to make any unjust or
unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices, classifications, regulations,
facilities, or services for or in connection with like communication service, directly
or indirectly, by any means or device, or to make or give any undue or
unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person, class of persons, or
locality, or to subject any particular person, class of persons, or locality to any
undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage.
(b) Charges or services, whenever referred to in this Act, include charges for, or services in connection with, the use of common carrier lines of communication, whether derived from wire or radio facilities, in chain broadcasting or incidental to radio communication of any kind.
(c) Any carrier who knowingly violates the provisions of this section shall forfeit to the United States the sum of $6,000 for each such offense and $300 for each and every day of the continuance of such offense.
SEC. 203. [47 U.S.C. 203] SCHEDULES OF CHARGES. Decisional Interference
(a) Every common carrier, except connecting carriers, shall, within such
reasonable time as the Commission shall designate, file with the Commission and
print and keep open for public inspection schedules showing all charges for itself
and its connecting carriers for interstate and foreign wire or radio communication
between the different points on its own system, and between points on its own
system and points on the system of its connecting carriers or points on the system
of any other carrier subject to this Act when a through route has been established,
whether such charges are joint or separate, and showing the classifications,
practices, and regulations affecting such charges. Such schedules shall contain such
other information, and be printed in such form, and be posted and kept open for
public inspection in such places, as the Commission may by regulation require, and
each such schedule shall give notice of its effective date; and such common carrier
shall furnish such schedules to each of its connecting carriers, and such connecting
carriers shall keep such schedules open for inspection in such public places as the
Commission may require.
(b)(1) No change shall be made in the charges, classifications, regulations, or practices which have been so filed and published except after one hundred and twenty days notice to the Commission and to the public, which shall be published in such form and contain such information as the Commission may by regulations prescribe.
(2) The Commission may, in its discretion and for good cause shown, modify any requirement made by or under the authority of this section either in particular instances or by general order applicable to special circumstances or conditions except that the Commission may not require the notice period specified in paragraph (1) to be more than one hundred and twenty days.
(c) No carrier, unless otherwise provided by or under authority of this Act, shall engage or participate in such communication unless schedules have been filed and published in accordance with the provisions of this Act and with the regulations made thereunder; and no carrier shall (1) charge, demand, collect, or receive a greater or less or different compensation, for such communication, or for any service in connection therewith, between the points named in any such schedule than the charges specified in the schedule then in effect, or (2) refund or remit by any means or device any portion of the charges so specified, or (3) extend to any person any privileges or facilities, in such communication, or employ or enforce any classifications, regulations, or practices affecting such charges, except as specified in such schedule.
(d) The Commission may reject and refuse to file any schedule entered for filing which does not provide and give lawful notice of its effective date. Any schedule so rejected by the Commission shall be void and its use shall be unlawful.
(e) In case of failure or refusal on the part of any carrier to comply with the provisions of this section or of any regulation or order made by the Commission thereunder, such carrier shall forfeit to the United States the sum of $6,000 for each such offense, and $300 for each and every day of the continuance of such offense.
SEC. 705. [47 U.S.C. 605] UNAUTHORIZED PUBLICATION OF COMMUNICATIONS.
(a) Except as authorized by chapter 119, title 18, United States Code, no person receiving, assisting in receiving, transmitting, or assisting in transmitting, any interstate or foreign communication by wire or radio shall divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning thereof, except through authorized channels of transmission or reception, Disclosure
(1) to any person other
than the addressee, his agent, or attorney,
(2) to a person employed or authorized to forward such communication to its destination,
(3) to proper accounting or distributing officers of the various communicating centers over which the communication may be passed,
(4) to the master of a ship under whom he is serving,
(5) in response to a subpena issued by a court of competent jurisdiction, or
(6) on demand of other lawful authority. No person not being authorized by the sender shall intercept any radio communication and divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of such intercepted communication to any person. No person not being entitled thereto shall receive or assist in receiving any interstate or foreign communication by radio and use such communication (or any information therein contained) for his own benefit or for the benefit of another not entitled thereto. No person having received any intercepted radio communication or having become acquainted with the contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of such communication (or any part thereof) knowing that such communication was intercepted, shall divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of such communication (or any part thereof) or use such communication (or any information therein contained) for his own benefit or for the benefit of another not entitled thereto. This section shall not apply to the receiving, divulging, publishing, or utilizing the contents of any radio communication which is transmitted by any station for the use of the general public, which relates to ships, aircraft, vehicles, or persons in distress, or which is transmitted by an amateur radio station operator or by a citizens band radio operator.
(b) The provisions of subsection (a) shall not apply to the interception or receipt by any individual, or the assisting (including the manufacture or sale) of such interception or receipt, of any satellite cable programming for private viewing if--
(1) the programming involved is not encrypted; and
(2)(A) a marketing system is not established under which--
(i) an agent or agents have been lawfully designated for the purpose of authorizing private viewing by individuals, and
(ii) such authorization is available to the individual involved from the appropriate agent or agents; or
(B) a marketing system described in subparagraph (A) is established and the individuals receiving such programming has obtained authorization for private viewing under that system.
(c) No person shall encrypt or continue to encrypt satellite delivered programs included in the National Program Service of the Public Broadcasting Service and intended for public viewing by retransmission by television broadcast stations; except that as long as at least one unencrypted satellite transmission of any program subject to this subsection is provided, this subsection shall not prohibit additional encrypted satellite transmissions of the same program. Decisional Interference
SEC. 222. [47 U.S.C. 222] PRIVACY OF CUSTOMER INFORMATION. Breach of Confidentiality, Insecurity
(a) IN GENERAL.--Every telecommunications carrier has a duty to protect
the confidentiality of proprietary information of, and relating to, other
telecommunication carriers, equipment manufacturers, and customers, including
telecommunication carriers reselling telecommunications services provided by a
telecommunications carrier.
(b) CONFIDENTIALITY OF CARRIER INFORMATION.--A telecommunications carrier that receives or obtains proprietary information from another carrier for purposes of providing any telecommunications service shall use such information only for such purpose, and shall not use such information for its own marketing efforts.
(c) CONFIDENTIALITY OF CUSTOMER PROPRIETARY NETWORK INFORMATION.--
(1) PRIVACY REQUIREMENTS FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIERS.--Except as required by law or with the approval of the customer, a telecommunications carrier that receives or obtains customer proprietary network information by virtue of its provision of a telecommunications service shall only use, disclose, or permit access to individually identifiable customer proprietary network information in its provision of (A) the telecommunications service from which such information is derived, or (B) services necessary to, or used in, the provision of such telecommunications service, including the publishing of directories.
(2) DISCLOSURE ON REQUEST BY CUSTOMERS.--A telecommunications carrier shall disclose customer proprietary network information, upon affirmative written request by the customer, to any person designated by the customer. Exclusion
(3) AGGREGATE CUSTOMER INFORMATION.--A telecommunications
carrier that receives or obtains customer proprietary network information
by virtue of its provision of a telecommunications service may use,
disclose, or permit access to aggregate customer information other than for
the purposes described in paragraph (1). A local exchange carrier may use,
disclose, or permit access to aggregate customer information other than for
purposes described in paragraph (1) only if it provides such aggregate
information to other carriers or persons on reasonable and
nondiscriminatory terms and conditions upon reasonable request therefor. Aggregation, Secondary Use
(d) EXCEPTIONS.--Nothing in this section prohibits a telecommunications
carrier from using, disclosing, or permitting access to customer proprietary
network information obtained from its customers, either directly or indirectly
through its agents--
(1) to initiate, render, bill, and collect for telecommunications services;
(2) to protect the rights or property of the carrier, or to protect users of those services and other carriers from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful use of, or subscription to, such services; or
(3) to provide any inbound telemarketing, referral, or administrative services to the customer for the duration of the call, if such call was initiated by the customer and the customer approves of the use of such information to provide such service.
(e) SUBSCRIBER LIST INFORMATION.--Notwithstanding subsections (b), (c), and (d), a telecommunications carrier that provides telephone exchange service shall provide subscriber list information gathered in its capacity as a provider of such service on a timely and unbundled basis, under nondiscriminatory and reasonable rates, terms, and conditions, to any person upon request for the purpose of publishing directories in any format.
(f) DEFINITIONS.--As used in this section:
(1) CUSTOMER PROPRIETARY NETWORK INFORMATION.--The term customer proprietary network information means--
(A) information that relates to the quantity, technical configuration, type, destination, and amount of use of a telecommunications service subscribed to by any customer of a telecommunications carrier, and that is made available to the carrier by the customer solely by virtue of the carrier-customer relationship; and
(B) information contained in the bills pertaining to telephone exchange service or telephone toll service received by a customer of a carrier;
except that such term does not include subscriber list information.
(2) AGGREGATE INFORMATION.--The term aggregate customer information means collective data that relates to a group or category of services or customers, from which individual customer identities and characteristics have been removed. Aggregation
(3) SUBSCRIBER LIST INFORMATION.--The term subscriber list
information means any information--
(A) identifying the listed names of subscribers of a carrier and such subscribers' telephone numbers, addresses, or primary advertising classifications (as such classifications are assigned at the time of the establishment of such service), or any combination of such listed names, numbers, addresses, or classifications; and Identification
(B) that the carrier or an affiliate has published, caused to be
published, or accepted for publication in any directory format.
SEC. 227. [47 U.S.C. 227] RESTRICTIONS ON THE USE OF TELEPHONE EQUIPMENT.
(c) PROTECTION OF SUBSCRIBER PRIVACY RIGHTS.--
(1) RULEMAKING PROCEEDING REQUIRED.--Within 120 days after the date of enactment of this section, the Commission shall initiate a rulemaking proceeding concerning the need to protect residential telephone subscribers' privacy rights to avoid receiving telephone solicitations to which they object. The proceeding shall-- Insecurity
(A) compare and evaluate alternative methods and
procedures (including the use of electronic databases, telephone
network technologies, special directory markings, industry-based or
company-specific do not call systems, and any other alternatives,
individually or in combination) for their effectiveness in protecting
such privacy rights, and in terms of their cost and other advantages
and disadvantages;
(B) evaluate the categories of public and private entities that would have the capacity to establish and administer such methods and procedures;
(C) consider whether different methods and procedures may apply for local telephone solicitations, such as local telephone solicitations of small businesses or holders of second class mail permits;
(D) consider whether there is a need for additional Commission authority to further restrict telephone solicitations, including those calls exempted under subsection (a)(3) of this section, and, if such a finding is made and supported by the record, propose specific restrictions to the Congress; and
(E) develop proposed regulations to implement the methods and procedures that the Commission determines are most effective and efficient to accomplish the purposes of this section.
(2) REGULATIONS.--Not later than 9 months after the date of enactment of this section, the Commission shall conclude the rulemaking proceeding initiated under paragraph (1) and shall prescribe regulations to implement methods and procedures for protecting the privacy rights described in such paragraph in an efficient, effective, and economic manner and without the imposition of any additional charge to telephone subscribers.
(3) USE OF DATABASE PERMITTED.--The regulations required by paragraph (2) may require the establishment and operation of a single national database to compile a list of telephone numbers of residential subscribers who object to receiving telephone solicitations, and to make that compiled list and parts thereof available for purchase. If the Commission determines to require such a database, such regulations shall--
(A) specify a method by which the Commission will select an entity to administer such database;
(B) require each common carrier providing telephone exchange service, in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Commission, to inform subscribers for telephone exchange service of the opportunity to provide notification, in accordance with regulations established under this paragraph, that such subscriber objects to receiving telephone solicitations;
(C) specify the methods by which each telephone subscriber shall be informed, by the common carrier that provides local exchange service to that subscriber, of (i) the subscriber's right to give or revoke a notification of an objection under subparagraph (A), and (ii) the methods by which such right may be exercised by the subscriber;
(D) specify the methods by which such objections shall be collected and added to the database;
(E) prohibit any residential subscriber from being charged for giving or revoking such notification or for being included in a database compiled under this section;
(F) prohibit any person from making or transmitting a telephone solicitation to the telephone number of any subscriber included in such database;
(G) specify (i) the methods by which any person desiring to make or transmit telephone solicitations will obtain access to the database, by area code or local exchange prefix, as required to avoid calling the telephone numbers of subscribers included in such database; and (ii) the costs to be recovered from such persons;
(H) specify the methods for recovering, from persons accessing such database, the costs involved in identifying, collecting, updating, disseminating, and selling, and other activities relating to, the operations of the database that are incurred by the entities carrying out those activities;
(I) specify the frequency with which such database will be updated and specify the method by which such updating will take effect for purposes of compliance with the regulations prescribed under this subsection;
(J) be designed to enable States to use the database mechanism selected by the Commission for purposes of administering or enforcing State law;
(K) prohibit the use of such database for any purpose other than compliance with the requirements of this section and any such State law and specify methods for protection of the privacy rights of persons whose numbers are included in such database; and
(L) require each common carrier providing services to any person for the purpose of making telephone solicitations to notify such person of the requirements of this section and the regulations thereunder.
(4) CONSIDERATIONS REQUIRED FOR USE OF DATABASE METHOD.--If the Commission determines to require the database mechanism described in paragraph (3), the Commission shall--
(A) in developing procedures for gaining access to the database, consider the different needs of telemarketers conducting business on a national, regional, State, or local level;
(B) develop a fee schedule or price structure for recouping the cost of such database that recognizes such differences and--
(i) reflect the relative costs of providing a national, regional, State, or local list of phone numbers of subscribers who object to receiving telephone solicitations;
(ii) reflect the relative costs of providing such lists on paper or electronic media; and
(iii) not place an unreasonable financial burden on small businesses; and
(C) consider (i) whether the needs of telemarketers operating on a local basis could be met through special markings of area white pages directories, and (ii) if such directories are needed as an adjunct to database lists prepared by area code and local exchange prefix.
(5) PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.--A person who has received more than one telephone call within any 12-month period by or on behalf of the same entity in violation of the regulations prescribed under this subsection may, if otherwise permitted by the laws or rules of court of a State bring in an appropriate court of that State--
(A) an action based on a violation of the regulations prescribed under this subsection to enjoin such violation,
(B) an action to recover for actual monetary loss from such a violation, or to receive up to $500 in damages for each such violation, whichever is greater, or
(C) both such actions.
It shall be an affirmative defense in any action brought under this paragraph that the defendant has established and implemented, with due care, reasonable practices and procedures to effectively prevent telephone solicitations in violation of the regulations prescribed under this subsection. If the court finds that the defendant willfully or knowingly violated the regulations prescribed under this subsection, the court may, in its discretion, increase the amount of the award to an amount equal to not more than 3 times the amount available under subparagraph (B) of this paragraph.
SEC. 228. [47 U.S.C. 228] REGULATION OF CARRIER OFFERING OF PAY-PER-CALL SERVICES
(4) SUBSCRIBER DISCONNECTION PROHIBITED.--A common carrier shall not disconnect or interrupt a subscriber's local exchange telephone service or long distance telephone service because of nonpayment of charges for any pay-per-call service.
(5) BLOCKING AND PRESUBSCRIPTION.--A common carrier that provides local exchange service shall--
(A) offer telephone subscribers (where technically feasible) the option of blocking access from their telephone number to all, or to certain specific, prefixes or area codes used by pay-per-call services, which option--
(i) shall be offered at no charge (I) to all subscribers for a period of 60 days after the issuance of the regulations under subsection (b), and (II) to any subscriber who subscribes to a new telephone number until 60 days after the time the new telephone number is effective; and
(ii) shall otherwise be offered at a reasonable fee; and
(B) offer telephone subscribers (where the Commission determines it is technically and economically feasible), in combination with the blocking option described under subparagraph (A), the option of presubscribing to or blocking only specific payper-call services for a reasonable one-time charge. The regulations prescribed under subparagraph (A)(i) of this paragraph may permit the costs of such blocking to be recovered by contract or tariff, but such costs may not be recovered from local or long-distance ratepayers. Nothing in this subsection precludes a common carrier from filing its rates and regulations regarding blocking and presubscription in its interstate tariffs.
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