U.S. lawsuits seek $2.2 trillion over "junk" faxes

Yahoo News ^ | 8/22/02 | Andrew Quinn

[steve-b]

I did notice that Kirsch and gang are actually seeking $1500 per fax, $1000 higher than the Cali $500 minimum per fax. That may be a bit over the top.

The junk fax law specifies treble damages when the junk faxer is in willful violation (e.g. he's been told to knock it off but continues).

[Dasaji]

There is nothing worse than getting to work in the morning and finding 8-10 junk faxes on the machine...and THEN having a legitimate one come in only to find you machine is out of ink!

[TechJunkYard]

Fax.com, in a statement, rejected the lawsuits as "unfounded and absurd" and said it had the constitutional right to advertise by fax.

47USC227: It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States... to use any telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to send an unsolicited advertisement to a telephone facsimile machine;

Too bad... you lose.

[Poohbah]

The law allows $500 per offending fax, plus $1,000 per in punitive if the faxer doesn't cease and desist upon request.

That's $1,500 per fax. 1.5 billion unsolicited faxes may sound like a lot, but these junk fax outfits typically have hundreds of phone lines, and send millions of faxes per day.

[steve-b]

To claim that a single fax endangers lives is bizarre.

How much trouble could one little tribble cause?

[monkeyshine]

Hey, I hate junk faxes as much as the next guy. But $2.2 trillion? That's more than even the greedy tobacco lawyers wanted. This is rediculous. The lawyers have no shame.

[CDHart]

"The person receiving the advertisement incurs a cost. Paper, connection time, etc..."

And how about the toner? That stuff's expensive!

Someone here on FR had several paragraphs from the US Code that appears to say that these junk faxes are illegal already. I printed it out and would send it back to those who sent the junk faxes. Then someone stole it. If anyone has it, could they please send me a copy? Thanks!

Carolyn

[martin_fierro]

47 USC 227 (b)(3)

California Junk Fax Law (weaker, for now): B&P §17538.4

[steve-b]

The law specifies a $500 penalty per junk fax ($1500 if the fax was sent in knowing and willful violation of the law). These spammers have sent a lot of junk faxes -- enough to incur $2.2 trillion in liability even at the lower figure (actually, it would make sense to charge them the full $6.6. trillion, simply to establish for the record that they knew perfectly well that they were breaking the law).

Of course, the plaintiff won't actually be able to extract more than the entire assets of the spamhaus company, but that's a different issue.

[CDHart]

Thank you!

Carolyn

[deks]

"Junk Faxers occupy the same circle of hell as SPAMers." >

And don't forget the telemarketers too! I wonder if faxes are used much anymore (now in 2014). People tell me to just scan it and put it in an email.

In case you are wondering how I found this thread. . . I put 22 as a keyword on a thread (for .22 caliber), but it just leads to this one :)