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FEC Permits Anonymous SMS Spam

Posted by michael on from the one-unread-message dept.

crm114 writes "The Washington Post is running a story about the Federal Election Commission's decision today to waive the requirement that SMS broadcast messages indicate their origin..." And it'll only cost you ten cents to read each one. For what it's worth, you can read the agenda item which describes the issue before the FEC. It's rather interesting because it includes drafts of two possible responses by the FEC, depending on which way the commissioners actually voted at today's meeting. Although the company seeking the opinion suggested alternatives like providing a toll-free phone number in the message (preserving the spirit of the campaign finance disclosure rules), the FEC doesn't appear to have taken them up on it.

5 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. TP! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Toilet Paper!

  2. Al Gore invented the Internet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Remember when Al Gore claimed that he "Created the Internet" (clueless partisan hacks insist it is true)? It's going to be kind of ironic if Al Gore mounts a 2nd losing presidential campaign that uses text spam.

    He'll have some sort of defense "I invented the net, so I can spam if it if I want". There is, after all, no controlling legal authority here.

  3. Re:Easy solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I dispute you. I wipe, you gripe.

  4. Re:OMFG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    LOL!!! I wunt to havz0r yer baybees!!!

  5. Re:Become your own politcal party. by jefu · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    How about getting the FSF and GNU organizations involved. If they could get addresses (numbers, whatever) for the Lord Great Poo Bahs at Unnamed-Evil-Megalithic-Corporation, their stockholders and users, such organizations could
    SMS them over and over and over with nice short messages (examples generated at random) :

    MS Word is Better than Vi !
    Oracle makes SQL Server look like S--T!
    Solaris Rules!
    Linux Beats Windows!

    In a similar vein (but Seriously Illegal - only done by experienced stock manipulators on closed courses - do NOT try this at home) one could SMS anonymous messages to users in the financial districts such as :

    "Doo Doo Corporation Joins Enron in SEC Investigation, Billions Rumoured Stolen."

    And finally with anonymity comes the fun of :

    "Joe Doe, Your Candidate for Senator, likes Sheep! Visit http://xxx.yyy.zzz for video!'