IP: more on You now have the privilege of paying for ads -- FEC Decision Could Jump-Start SMS Political Ads

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Rodney Joffe <rjoffe () ultradns com>

Dave,

I believe your readers, and many others including the journalist, have
misunderstood the situation here. All the Federal ELECTION Regulators
(not congress, nor the FCC) have allowed is for the SMS messages to not
have to include the normal political identifiers. In NO way does this
affect the terms of the TCPA (U.S. Title 47 Section 227).

The senders will STILL have to have prior explicit permission to send
the messages.

You may remember my note to you and the list over a year ago detailing
my experience with SMS spam. As you may have seen in the many press
articles and Radio and TV interviews since, my case has marched its way
up the court system.
(http://www.courtminutes.maricopa.gov/docs/Civil\032002\m0574564.pdf).
It is now in the Arizona Superior Court awaiting a Class Certification
decision after the trial Judge affirmed that a SMS message is indeed
covered by the TCPA, even though when it was introduced SMS was not a
function or feature of cell phone service. Mine seems to be the only
case within any courts so far, so hopefully we'll be able to provide a
precedent. In any case, Rep. Rush Holt of NJ (isn't that ironic, given
the companies mentioned below?) has sponsored an amendment to the TCPA
to squish any wriggle room that may exist.

Your readers need to chill. If they haven't given explicit permission to
anyone to send ads to their phones, they won't suddenly start getting
them. And if they do, they have a perfect remedy - $500 as payment under
the TCPA.

Of course, this presupposes that the politicians themselves won't
suddenly introduce an amendment that allows political SMS messages to be
sent without prior permission.


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