I think the newsgroup participant makes a slight stretch here.
The statute referred to is titled "Restrictions on the Use of Telephone
Equipment". Among other things, it makes illegal the "use (of) any
telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to send an
unsolicited advertisement to a telephone facsimile machine". It also
prohibits the use of automatic dialing systems to initiate phone calls,
except in emergencies or with prior consent of the called party.
I think there are two major obstacles to the interpretation offered:
1. The "called party" is not defined in the statute, but in most cases,
and by most logical definitions, the server hosting the newsgroup or
e-mail would be "called", not the individual. Many ISPs implicitly
and/or explicitly consent to automatic dial-up connections. Most will
provide the dial-up script for you and some will automatically configure
your system for automated dialing to the service.
2. "Telephone facsimile machine" is defined and it literally means a
fax machine. From what I could gather from a synopsis of the
legislative history (and remembering that I did about 5 minutes of
research on this) e-mail technologies were not contemplated in the
debate over this law.
This law was enacted in a direct response to automated telemarketing
companies who bothered people at home and tied up personal and business
fax lines. It is a tempting to try to extend this protection to e-mail,
but we will either need an amendment to the law or an activist federal
appellate court somewhere to make tha leap.
Joe Bracchitta