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I won a suit against a party that sent me an unsolicited text message

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Re: I won a suit against a party that sent me an unsolicited text message

#91

Post by gnopgnip »

game-of-throws wrote: post #49
thathndude wrote: post #31

Lawyer here. I do this kind of work for a client. Good for this guy for taking the fight to the spammers. As we head into election season, a lot of us are going to get unsolicited text messages like this. You too can sue for them! Some of what was said in the tweets regarding your rights and what you have to do to file a claim are, in my experience and opinion, not correct. The general idea is right, but some of the…

> As we head into election season, a lot of us are going to get unsolicited text messages like this. You too can sue for them! Can you elaborate? Every source I've seen says that politicians have exempted themselves from the spam laws. e.g. a random google result: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/elections/202... > That's because the National Do Not Call Registry does not apply to political text message…

Political txt, email and calls are (mostly)protected by the first amendment as free speech. It would be unconstitutional for the government to restrict it with very limited exceptions, mostly related to imminent threats of violence.

Commercial speech can be regulated provided certain requirements are met that are more widely applicable, a four part test is used. See Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission. Also under Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel the government can compel commercial speech, require advertisers to include factual disclaimers.

So laws like the CAN-SPAM act prohibit unsolicited commercial advertising via txt or email if certain requirements are not met.

Re: I won a suit against a party that sent me an unsolicited text message

#95

Post by gnopgnip »

aliqot wrote: post #32
flerchin wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, and folks could even have a credit of 500 phone calls a month, or whatever a reasonable number would be, so no cost to consumers at all. Instead of a tax, it should be a minimum charge that goes to the carriers. So that they would be incentivized to collect it.

In a world where we pay for stamps, why didn't bulk unsolicited mail go away? This won't work.

It doesn't have to go away entirely to be worth making a change. I get probably 100x more email spam than physical mail

Re: I won a suit against a party that sent me an unsolicited text message

#96

Post by muttled »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #37

In Germany, any company telling you that you won something is required to provide that prize. Unfortunately, the scams I get tend to be from abroad, and/or the actors behind them impossible to identify (and they also often use vague language like "potentially won" or "won one of our prizes" vs. "YOU WON A BRAND NEW TESLA CYBERTRUCK").

Telling someone they won a Toy Yoda in text form just wouldn't work as well

Re: I won a suit against a party that sent me an unsolicited text message

#97

Post by game-of-throws »

whatshisface wrote: post #90
game-of-throws wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In a world where we pay for stamps, why didn't bulk unsolicited mail go away? Why would it work for telephones? Different situation. Bulk mail is not illegal, in fact the USPS subsidizes it. Spam calls ARE illegal. Hopefully phone carriers will not give discounts for explicitly illegal uses of their networks, but we can deal with that later if it happens.

You are right back at the same "distinguishing legal from illegal calls" problem.

The whole point of this scheme is that it treats all callers equally, and works without needing to distinguish legal from illegal calls.

Re: I won a suit against a party that sent me an unsolicited text message

#98

Post by fudged71 »

andrewljohnson wrote: post #36

To what extent can this be automated? There are apps to fight parking/speeding tickets... could the same be done for little lawsuits to sue spammers? Maybe a lawyer could comment on feasibility of this.

A few years ago there was a web service in my region that allowed you to send a traffic ticket, and they would take all the tickets into court to fight as many as possible and give all customers a flat 30% discount off the shared savings.

It was incredible. But somehow they got shut down when judges and cops didn't like what they were doing.

Re: I won a suit against a party that sent me an unsolicited text message

#99

Post by duckmysick »

vorpalhex wrote: post #62
throw8383833jj wrote: post #17

I think a much easier way would be if we just taxed phone calls at 1 cent each. I mean absolutely everything else is already taxed: you pay taxes just to stay alive. the least that could be done is add a 1 cent tax to each phone call, just enough to stop the mass phone calling.

An online game, Eve Online, let's you set a fee for anyone not in your contacts to message you, with a default fee. You get some of it and "the government" (the game) gets the rest. The first time you message someone, you get prompted to pay the fee or discard your message. I want this in real life. Set a default of a $1 or so. Your carrier gets $0.25, you get $0.75. You can adjust the fee to $0 or $1000. Carrier get…

Interesting. Would it work per device or would there be a central repository that stores everyone's contact list?

Re: I won a suit against a party that sent me an unsolicited text message

#100

Post by tptacek »

thathndude wrote: post #31

Lawyer here. I do this kind of work for a client. Good for this guy for taking the fight to the spammers. As we head into election season, a lot of us are going to get unsolicited text messages like this. You too can sue for them! Some of what was said in the tweets regarding your rights and what you have to do to file a claim are, in my experience and opinion, not correct. The general idea is right, but some of the…

Campaign calls and texts are explicitly exempt from the Do Not Call registry, as they must be.
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