Dex, Seattle’s largest phone book publisher, today appealed (.pdf) the court’s decision to deny its request for preliminary injunction against the city’s new yellow pages opt-out legislation. The appeal was made to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and sends a strong message to city officials that the yellow pages industry isn’t giving up easily.
Kimberly Mills, spokesperson for the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, says that the “city will file briefs opposing the appeal.”
The city launched its opt-out system last Friday. Under the city’s ordinance, yellow pages publishers are banned from delivering phone books to anyone who signs up for the city-enforced opt-out list. The yellow pages industry’s original lawsuit against the city’s ordinance is still pending. The industry claims that the ordinance is a violation of their free speech rights.
The city asked Seattle residents to opt-out by May 16 if they wanted to stop Dex from delivering in June. Dex immediately filed a request for a temporary restraining order so that it could continue with its printing and distribution until the court hands down a decision to the original lawsuit. But a U.S. District Court judge ruled that Dex had failed to prove that a preliminary injunction would be in the public interest.
Meanwhile, the number of opt-outs continue to grow. More than 100,000 yellow pages have been canceled by nearly 17,000 households. You can opt-out here.
I had to read the first sentence a few times to make sense of it.
To quote Alan Grayson, ex-congressman from Orlando: Dear purveyors of 1950’s business model: Die Quickly!
When I avoided eye contact with that guy handing out flyers on the street corner, I was violating his first amendment rights? Oh gods… I’m a monster. I didn’t know. I didn’t know!
If they lose before SCOTUS, where this is headed, their entire business model of littering is over and they know it. They will fight to the last dollar as it literally IS their last dollar.
Have they been able to explain how leaving a print-out of the top 1000 google searches on my doorstep without my permission is “free speech”?
Who on earth is stupid enough to buy advertising from these hucksters?
If the courts do rule that phone books are free speech they’d better damn well rule that doctors are allowed to ask you if you have a gun.
Is it free speech if I dump a bag of garbage on the front porch of the CEO of Dex? Seems comparable.