Verizon takes on fuzzy-bunny robo-dialer

Like most current and former children, the lawyers at Verizon presumably have nothing against the Velveteen Rabbit. They do not, however, care for the Utah-based telemarketer that apparently made nearly half a million calls to Verizon Wireless subscribers on behalf of Family 1 Films, which is distributing a movie version of the beloved book.

The suit, filed in US District Court in Trenton, NJ, states that a Utah telemarketing outfit called Feature Films for Families made nearly 500,000 calls over several days in early February -- an average during some one-hour periods of a call every .32 seconds. Calls consisted of either a prerecorded voice message or a live human reading a script promoting the movie. (An IMDB commenter wasn't wowed by that script, describing it as "it's about a wonderful rabbit who goes on an adventure....blah blah blah....for every dollar you spend at the box office we will give you a credit for a DVD in our video library.")

Verizon's suit accuses Feature Films for Families of violating of the Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which makes it illegal to use an autodialer to make calls to wireless phones. Other state fraud and privacy laws may also have been broken. Verizon Wireless has also filed a motion seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the defendants from making these calls. However, another commenter at IMDB had an experience that indicates that not every call was entirely executed by robots; the commenter above asked the human how they got his/her number and was told the telemarketing firm was "trying every combination of numbers" on the calls. Another commenter was contacted at 7:12am on her/his emergency phone; a third reported three separate calls.