New N.Y. Law Targets Hidden Net LD Tolls

[Fergie (Paul Ferguson)]

Must be fun days in NY State with Eliot Spitzer as AG. Lots of
"(mumble) war on cyber (mumble) crime (mumble) national security
(mumble)".... :-)

Actually, I kind of like the guy for taking some disreputable
companies to task

An AP newswire article by Michael Gormley, via Yahoo! News,
reveals that:

[snip]

A new law that's apparently the first in the nation threatens to penalize Internet service providers that fail to warn users that some dial-up numbers can ring up enormous long-distance phone bills even though they appear local.

A long distance call even within the same area code can cost 8 to 12 cents a minute, adding up to hundreds, even thousands of dollars a month.

Companies face fines of up to $500 for each offense, and consumers could pursue civil action claiming an unfair business practice.

The National Conference of State Legislatures said it knows of no similar law elsewhere.

[snip]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050818/ap_on_hi_te/techbits_isp_charges

- ferg

--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg@netzero.net or fergdawg@sbcglobal.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/