Court: Law Applies To Mobile Spam

PHOENIX (AP)--An Arizona court has ruled that a 1991 federal ban on using autodialers to call cell phones also prohibits sending mobile text messages with unsolicited advertisements--a technology not in vogue when the law was enacted.

The unanimous decision by a three-judge Court of Appeals panel upholds a ruling in favor of a man who had sued a mortgage company in 2001 after it sent two unsolicited text messages to his cell phone. Rodney L. Joffe claimed that the messages by Acacia Mortgage Corp. violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991.

Acacia argued that it had only sent a message and did not "call" Joffe, but the Court of Appeals said that was an incomplete description of what the company did when it used e-mail to indirectly connect to Joffe's cell phone and place a text message.

"Even though Acacia used an attenuated method to dial a cell phone telephone number, it nevertheless did so," Judge Patricia K. Norris wrote for the panel.

The court said Congress wrote the 1991 law in a way that anticipated advances in automatic phone dialing technology.

Lawyers for Acacia and Joffe did not return calls for comment on Tuesday's ruling.