Stephen King Text Message Promo May Be Horror Story for S&S

By Andrew Albanese -- Publishers Weekly, 6/22/2009 8:42:00 AM

A 2006 text message campaign to enlist readers for "the Stephen King VIP Mobile Club" may turn out to be a horror story for publisher Simon & Schuster in court. According to a report in Online Media Daily, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last week ruled that the short ads may have violated the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, reversing an earlier 2007 ruling in favor of Simon & Schuster, and remanding the case back to the trial court. 

The class action case dates back to 2006, and was started after a New York resident, Laci Satterfield, received an unsolicited message promoting Stephen King’s book, Cell, after she had registered for a free ringtone service. While she agreed to receive alerts from the ringtone provider, she did not sign up for the S&S messages, which she claims violate federal laws against using automated dialing systems to reach wireless devices. Among the issues the court will now review is whether the text-messaging technology used to send the messages constitutes an  automatic dialing service.

“We will continue to defend this matter and our next steps are under review,” S&S spokesperson Adam Rothberg told PW.  “While we don’t comment on the specifics of matters in litigation, before conducting any promotional campaign we assure ourselves that it will be conducted in compliance with all relevant laws.”