The fines come in two parts. The most recent comes from settling a complaint yesterday lodged by the Justice Department for the Federal Trade Commission.

DirecTV agreed to pay $5.3 million in fines. On Monday, DirecTV agreed to pay $5 million to New York and 21 other states, and restitution to consumers, to settle complaints against its marketing practices.

The do-not-call list was launched in 2003, and now has 110 million phone numbers of consumers. Telemarketers are able to download the DNC list at www.donotcall.gov--all so they will avoid calling these numbers.

DirecTV denied any violations of the telemarketing rules, but paid the money and agreed not to repeat the unwanted calls.

The FTC said there were thousands of violations in reference to the DirecTV marketing efforts.

This news story is important. I recommend that everyone read it.