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Arizona applies ban on autodialers to mobile phone spam

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From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

US state of Arizona

On Tuesday an Arizona appellate court ruled that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, a federal law that bans using autodialers to call mobile phones or pagers, also applies to text messages sent to mobile phones.

The three-judge Court of Appeals panel upheld the trial judge’s ruling in favour of Rodney L. Joffe. He sued Acacia Mortgage Corp. in 2001, for $55,000 in damages for harassment.

Acacia used a web-based system to send the text messages, which translates the users phone number into an e-mail address. Acacia argued that the company was not making calls to mobile phones, but rather sending e-mails. "Even though Acacia used an attenuated method to dial a cell phone telephone number, it nevertheless did so," wrote Judge Patricia K. Norris.

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