In response to the news that two U.S. Senators have introduced legislation to stop unsolicited text messaging, it might be helpful to clarify whether unsolicited commercial texting is already illegal.

In 2004, the Federal Communications Commission released its Rules and Regulations Implementing the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003. The primary purpose of the rules governs commercial email sent to a mobile user with an Internet domain name. (eg; anything with an @’example’.com email address.)   However, the FCC clarified in this rulemaking that short message service/text messaging via an “automatic telephone dialing system” is prohibited under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which includes all phone numbers registered with the FTC Do Not Call Registry.

To be clear, ‘automatic telephone dialing systems’ are defined as “equipment which has the capacity (A) to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator; and (B) to dial such numbers.”

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Yesterday I stumbled upon this post by Jay Seaton at the Mobile Messaging 2 blog, which covers a topic we all could learn something from: “Tips for (Responsible) Texting.”

There are a couple of real gems in there worth considering, including this one:

Remember that “Text Language” is for texting only! Sure when you’re limited to a few characters it makes sense to abbreviate and use acronyms; it’s a part of texting culture. But don’t forget Grandma won’t understand it when you respond to her joke with LOL.

The same could easily be said of making sure your email copy is understandable to your whole audience if your list covers a wide range of demographics. After all, you don’t want to alienate certain edges of your customer base by talking too much about, say, your memories of the William Taft presidency when most of them are concerned with the latest episode of Hannah Montana.