[comp.dcom.telecom] Urban Legend? -- Caller IDentified Sues and Wins!

jean@hrcca.att.com (Nancy J Airey) (03/20/91)

In a recent class I had two students relate a story to me which I
suspect may be an "Urban Legend."

The story goes that a woman in Florida with "caller ID" on her phone
was receiving obscene phone calls.  She reported the phone number to
the police and the caller was charged.

The caller sued her for invasion of privacy and won.

Is this "Urban legend" or fact?

Can anyone *document* date/time/place/*court record*?

(I put the "UL" flag on it because I felt that a definite court case
would have been frequently cited by those arguing on both sides of the
ICLID issue.)


att!hrcca!jean


[Moderator's Note: This wouldn't surprise me at all, given the climate
in the criminal justice system in America today. But maybe some
researchers among us have more details.   PAT]

Neil Rickert <rickert@cs.niu.edu> (03/20/91)

In article <telecom11.219.3@eecs.nwu.edu> jean@hrcca.att.com (Nancy J
Airey) writes:

> The story goes that a woman in Florida with "caller ID" on her phone
> was receiving obscene phone calls.  She reported the phone number to
> the police and the caller was charged.

> The caller sued her for invasion of privacy and won.

 Are there any jurisdictions where the time between filing a suit and
having it heard is shorter than the time caller ID has been in effect?


  Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science               <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
  Northern Illinois Univ.
  DeKalb, IL 60115                                   +1-815-753-6940

William.Degnan@f39.n382.z1.fidonet.org (William Degnan) (03/24/91)

 From: jean@hrcca.att.com 

> The story goes that a woman in Florida with "caller ID" on her
> phone was receiving obscene phone calls.  She reported the phone
> number to the police and the caller was charged.

Well, it is unlikely it was Florida. I don't believe it has been
implemented there.

I suspect we would have heard about it (if true) before you could have
heard about it in class.


Disclaimer: Contents do not constitute "advice" unless we are on the clock.
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ruck@reef.cis.ufl.edu (John Ruckstuhl) (03/24/91)

In article <telecom11.219.3@eecs.nwu.edu> jean@hrcca.att.com (Nancy J
Airey) writes:

> The story goes that a woman in Florida with "caller ID" on her phone
> was receiving obscene phone calls.  She reported the phone number to
> the police and the caller was charged.
> The caller sued her for invasion of privacy and won.

Probably not in Florida -- a Southern Bell Customer Service person
told me that CallerID wasn't available in Florida (yet) because of
current state laws.  An easy way to disprove the story is to verify my
information (left as an exercise to the reader -- I don't know who to
ask for *guaranteed* accurate information, but I'm sure some of you do. :)


Best Regards,

John R Ruckstuhl, Jr			ruck@alpha.ee.ufl.edu
Dept of Electrical Engineering		ruck@cis.ufl.edu, uflorida!ruck
University of Florida			ruck%sphere@cis.ufl.edu, sphere!ruck

john@uunet.uu.net (John Temples) (03/25/91)

In article <telecom11.233.4@eecs.nwu.edu> ruck@reef.cis.ufl.edu (John
Ruckstuhl) writes:

> In article <telecom11.219.3@eecs.nwu.edu> jean@hrcca.att.com (Nancy
> J Airey) writes:

>> The story goes that a woman in Florida with "caller ID" on her phone

> Probably not in Florida -- a Southern Bell Customer Service person
> told me that CallerID wasn't available in Florida

Caller*ID was available to a limited number of people for a few months
here in Orlando three or four years ago.  I think they were just doing
a market test at the time.  I know someone who had it, and I saw it in
action, so this isn't just hearsay.  I don't know about the rest of
the state.


John W. Temples -- john@jwt.UUCP (uunet!jwt!john)

bill@uunet.uu.net (Bill Vermillion) (03/25/91)

In article <telecom11.233.4@eecs.nwu.edu> ruck@reef.cis.ufl.edu (John
Ruckstuhl) writes:

> In article <telecom11.219.3@eecs.nwu.edu> jean@hrcca.att.com (Nancy J
> Airey) writes:
 
>> The story goes that a woman in Florida with "caller ID" on her phone
>> was receiving obscene phone calls.  She reported the phone number to
>> the police and the caller was charged.
>> The caller sued her for invasion of privacy and won.
 
> Probably not in Florida -- a Southern Bell Customer Service person
> told me that CallerID wasn't available in Florida (yet) because of
> current state laws.  An easy way to disprove the story is to verify my
> information (left as an exercise to the reader -- I don't know who to
> ask for *guaranteed* accurate information, but I'm sure some of you do. :)

However Call Tracing has been available in Southern Bell switches in
metro Orlando for several years, and United makes it available on
April 1.

Call Tracing stores the callers number at the phone company and they
will turn that number over to the police (or other law enforcement
agencies) for proscecution if the called person wants that done.  The
number will not be given the the called person.

United is also implelementing for the first time in this area
call-back, call-block and a couple of other minor things.


Bill Vermillion - UUCP: uunet!tarpit!bilver!bill
                      : bill@bilver.UUCP

FVEST@ducvax.auburn.edu (Floyd Vest) (03/26/91)

[23 Mar 91 21:16:42 GMT] William.Degnan@f39.n382.z1.fidonet.org
(William Degnan) wrote:

> From: jean@hrcca.att.com
>> The story goes that a woman in Florida with "caller ID" on her

> Well, it is unlikely it was Florida. I don't believe it has been
> implemented there.

The South Central Bell {Bell Notes} (phone bill newsletter insert)
reported about three or four years ago that "entended custom calling"
[read CLASS] services were being test marketed in a "central Florida"
community.  About a year-and-a-half ago they also reported that
residential ISDN (they didn't call it that) was being test marketed a
"central Florida" community.  Why can't they test market thing like
that here?  Anyone know where this community is and what's being test
marketed now?


Floyd Vest <fvest@ducvax.auburn.edu> <fvest@auducvax.bitnet>
Manager, Administrative Systems--Auburn University, Alabama USA
Voice: +1 205 844 4512  BBS: +1 205 745 3989  FIDO: 1:3613/3

TONY@mcgill1.bitnet (Tony Harminc) (03/29/91)

In TELECOM Digest V#11 Issue 244 Floyd Vest writes:

> [read CLASS] services were being test marketed in a "central Florida"
> community. Anyone know where this community is and what's being test
> marketed now?

The residential ISDN trial was in Heathrow, Florida (not to be
confused with the more famous airport of the same name).