[TexRef]

Big difference here. Your phone is a service you pay for. So telemarketers are in a way stealing from you when they use your service at your expense. Mail is a service they pay for.

Not really. I mean, who actually pays for incoming calls anymore? I would suspect that for the vast majority of their "customers" these calls are free.

Telemarketers and junk mail are very similar -- it's just that junk mail is slightly less annoying because it doesn't take as much time for you to go through it. That's what they are stealing -- your time -- just like the spammers of the world.

[discostu]

You pay to have the service, the implication of that is that you're paying to be able to receive calls whenever you're not making them.

I've never gotten so much mail that I couldn't do the sort on the walk back in the house. And now I have a fire place, I want that junkmail now.

[BlazingArizona]

Not really. I mean, who actually pays for incoming calls anymore? I would suspect that for the vast majority of their "customers" these calls are free.

When telemarketers call my cell number, I'm paying for all those minutes. It's supposed to be illegal, but there's big loophole: it's illegal to knowingly call a cell number. If they claim they called your cell by mistake, there's nothing you can do.