Melville House Books

Even il Pape says "For God's sake, no more text messages from Stephen King!"

“An appellate court ruled Friday that book publisher Simon & Schuster might have violated federal law by allegedly sending unsolicited text messages promoting Stephen King‘s Cell,” according to a report by Wendy Davis on Mediapost. “The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held that sending SMS messages potentially violates the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits companies from using automatic telephone dialing systems to make calls to cell phones unless the owners have consented.”

According to the Mediapost story, “The case dates back to 2006, when New York resident Laci Satterfield filed a class-action lawsuit against Simon and Schuster and mobile marketing firm ipsh! Satterfield had signed up for a free ringtone service from Nextones … [and] agreed to receive promotions from Nextones affiliates and brands. After registering for this service, she received an unsolicited text message inviting her to join the ‘Stephen King VIP Mobile Club’ and directing her to www.cellthebook.com. She alleged that this message violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s ban on using automated dialing systems to reach wireless devices. She sought class-action status and a minimum of $500 damages per incident for each cell phone customer.”

Simon & Schuster had argued that text messages aren’t the same as a voice call on a telephone, and that Satterfield had consented to receive ads. But the judge said the Telephone Consumer Protection Act doesn’t differentiatie between voice and text calls, and that Satterfiedl had only agreed to receive ads from Nextone and affiliates, and that S&S wasn’t an affiliate of Nextones.

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.