UPDATE: This post has been updated with more information on May 10.
U.S. District Judge James L. Robart yesterday denied (.pdf) Dex’s request for a preliminary injunction of the city’s phone book ordinance, landing yet another blow to yellow pages publishers in Seattle.
The city’s new yellow pages ordinance bans yellow pages publishers from distributing phone books to anybody on a city-enforced opt-out list and penalizes violations with a fine. The city launched its opt-out website last Thursday, and in the first 12 hours 8,800 households logged on and opted out of 59,600 phone books. As of this morning, nearly 14,000 households and businesses have opted out of 85,000 phone book deliveries.
Dex filed a request for a temporary restraining order against the opt-out system the same day it went live, arguing that it violated their First Amendment rights. But Judge Robart didn’t agree with them, explaining in his order that:
Because Plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits of their First Amendment claim, because any First Amendment impact on the public is limited, and because the City and its residents have competing public interests in privacy and waste reduction, the court finds that Plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that a preliminary injunction is in the public interest. Accordingly, the court denies Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction on this ground as well.
The City of Seattle released a statement saying that they were “heartened” by the ruling. “The public support for this opt-out system is gaining,” said Council Member Mike O’Brien, who sponsored the opt-out legislation, in the statement. “We are pleased that people can continue to opt-out.”
Local Search Association (formerly Yellow Pages Association) President Neg Norton said in a statement that he was disappointed with the court’s decision. LSA’s original lawsuit against the city’s ordinance is still pending and Norton said he is hopeful the court will eventually realize that the legislation is discriminatory.
i think they should have the right to deliver these nightmarish, useless tree graveyards IF we are afforded the equal right to burn them en masse on the corporate office doorstep.
@1 I’d settle for a Second Amendment Solution for the yellow pages CEO who litters my property without a warrant.
Next on the hit list: A Pizza Company, for stapling their flyers to my fence.
It’s a great start, but I’d love for the state to change anti-dumping laws to include phone books. My understanding is that the books are currently not considered garbage because printed “informational” material is exempt. If you don’t want it and didn’t ask for it, it’s trash.
Hey Stranger, could you get an interview with these fucknuts? Can you ask them why they’d be fighting for the right to drop phonebooks on the porches of people who have explicitly indicated that they think phonebooks are useless litter? I mean, what’s the business argument here? If you know I don’t want a phonebook, and you know it pisses me off enough to sign up for the fucking No Goddamn Phonebooks registry, do you really think I’m going to use your phonebook?
@5,
They don’t give a shit whether you want it or not, or whether you use it or not. Their yellow pages ad revenue is based entirely on circulation, or the number of phone books they hand out. If they deliver fewer books, they get less ad revenue. The end.
In other words, they have a powerful financial interest in delivering as many phone books as possible, regardless of whether you want it or use it.
Yeah, but the more light that is shed on this, the more advertisers will realize that numbers based purely on circulation as opposed to readership are meaningless. The thing is in a death spiral and anything we can do to accelerate it is great.