Asking people to call a phone number?

March 7, 2009 2:15 AM

Are there any legal issues involved in asking people to call a telephone number?

The scenario: Let's say the New York Times had a section (not an ad) that simply said Call This Number and listed a phone number that happened to be a comic book store or some other "random" company. The company had no knowledge that the number was going to being printed.

Would it be considered harassment for the NYT to tell people to call that phone number? Would they be responsible if a million people called the number and effectively made the line useless to the company being called?

Smaller scale: Let's say a person posted up flyers in their neighborhood that simply had a phone number on it. Same issues?

(above assumes everything is taking place within the U.S.)

posted by 1001 questions to law & government (8 comments total)

Get a lawyer - but that said, it all depends on the contexts. You certainly don't seem to mean anything nice - otherwise you would be asking 'would it be considered free advertising' or something. Don't do it.
posted by By The Grace of God at 2:20 AM on March 7

Not directly in any way I can imagine. There are no laws (that I know of) that state, "you cannot purposefully encourage people to call a number and thereby render that number useless to the company that owns it." I'm no expert, but I don't think the laws on telephones were written with DDoS attacks in mind.

But note that I say "not directly." This is why counsel that you call a lawyer is good. This is actually the sort of thing that criminal lawyers live for - at least the criminal lawyers that I know: a case where something was done to one party that was clearly wrong, and it was done arguably with the second party's knowledge that it would harm the first party; yet there doesn't seem to be a clear law on the books to support it, so one has to make arguments based on harassment, threatening of livelihood, etc. I have a feeling that, if you took this to a criminal trial lawyer, s/he'd jump at the case; there are interesting implications.

So, yeah: talk to a lawyer.
posted by koeselitz at 2:48 AM on March 7

You're likely to run afoul of harassment statutes. If the number is in fact rendered useless, the owner of the business will likely have a viable tort against the publisher of the number for the damage to his business.

Basically, if you cause damage to someone, unless your activity is somehow protected--by the First Amendment, for example--you can be held liable for the damages you cause. It doesn't really matter if there's a recognized cause of action; modern courts are very good at recognizing "implied" causes of action and don't like letting tricky bastards cause harm and get away with it. A stunt like this will almost certainly subject you to liability.

IANAL, but seriously now, come on.
posted by valkyryn at 3:38 AM on March 7

If its a private number of an individual, its harassment and is illegal.

If it's a number of a business which has already been advertised publically, it's a free for all.
posted by Ten98 at 4:46 AM on March 7

there was a case of some band a long time back mentioning a phone number in a song which caused everyone to call said number. I have heard that mentioned a million times but never that there was any legal consequence. someone else might have more details.

printing errors are something you can't be held accountable for, so if someone just happens to have a phone number just a few digits off from the local pizza service and a flyer with said digits switched would appear... oh, I need to grow up.
posted by krautland at 6:41 AM on March 7 [1 favorite]

No comment on the legal question, but krautland may be talking about Jenny (867-5309).
posted by rdn at 6:54 AM on March 7 [2 favorites]

Your question reminded me of this. It's a comedy article but the author claims it's true. He says he could have easily gotten into a lot of legal trouble. (warning, it's got mature language, possibly NSFW)
posted by cali59 at 9:15 AM on March 7

A woman was arrested for identity theft this week for pranking her boyfriend this way. Your examples don't seem to rise to this level, though.
posted by rhizome at 10:32 AM on March 7