Rolling Stone Sued For Text Messaging Spam

from the a-text-message-gathers-no-moss dept

Rolling Stone publisher, Wenner Media, has been hit with a class action lawsuit over spam text messages that were used to aggressively promote Rolling Stone, US Weekly and Men's Journal. Of course, it's not clear that this is actually illegal. The lawsuit is based on a law that forbids the automatic dialing of marketing phone calls to mobile phones, but it's not clear if that actually applies to SMS messages as well.
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Filed Under: rolling stone, spam, text messages
Companies: wenner media


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  • identicon
    out_of_the_blue, 11 Nov 2010 @ 7:05pm

    Splitting hairs.

    It's *marketing* to a *phone*.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Nov 2010 @ 7:05pm

    text message spam is even worse than phone spam... I'm amazed if it isn't illegal, it should be because it costs people money to receive and you have no choice.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Sean T Henry (profile), 12 Nov 2010 @ 7:28am

      Re:

      If it costs you money to receive text messages GET A NEW PLAN. I have never been charged to receive txts even when on some of the phone card plans. If they charge you to receive the service sucks.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    James, 11 Nov 2010 @ 9:23pm

    Whether its legal or not

    Anyone who engages in spam, text, email, etc., should be shot.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      harbingerofdoom (profile), 11 Nov 2010 @ 11:35pm

      Re: Whether its legal or not

      thats far to kind a sentiment

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Richard Kulawiec, 12 Nov 2010 @ 4:58am

      Re: Whether its legal or not

      I don't know if you're serious or just venting, but I've actually constructed (elsewhere) a serious attempt at an argument that spamming should be punished by the death penalty. As you might guess, this isn't very popular with spammers, their associates, their supporters, their suppliers/consultants/vendors, etc.

      What few people seem to grasp yet is that spammers are sociopathic monsters; that's why, as I've often said, there is no such thing as an ex-spammer. (Every now and then someone mistakenly claims to have spotted an example of one. It inevitably turns out that the spammer has just migrated to a different form of abuse -- see "Spamford Wallace" for the canonical case study.)

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    willbates (profile), 12 Nov 2010 @ 12:36am

    Re: Whether its legal or not

    It definitely should be illegal but in any case I have no idea why companies would do it, it's just annoying and makes consumers hate their brand!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Nov 2010 @ 4:48am

    25c a text that I never asked for and do not want. YES, Should be illegal and I hope they lose the case against them!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Nov 2010 @ 7:05am

    I want to sue the Republican and Democratic Parties for spamming me during election. They call you, email you, text you and make you numb watching television. I hate them. They suck.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Gene Cavanaugh, 12 Nov 2010 @ 9:41am

    SMS and autodialing

    If it doesn't, it should.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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