WASHINGTON STATUTES AND CODES

19.162.020 - Definitions.

Definitions.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.

     (1) "Person" means an individual, corporation, the state or its subdivisions or agencies, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, cooperative, or any other legal entity.

     (2) "Information delivery services" means telephone-recorded messages, interactive programs, or other information services that are provided for a charge to a caller through an exclusive telephone number prefix or service access code.

     (3) "Information provider" means the person who provides the information, prerecorded message, or interactive program for the information delivery service. The information provider generally receives a portion of the revenue from the calls. "Information provider" does not include the medium for advertising information delivery services.

     (4) "Interactive program" means a program that allows an information delivery service caller, once connected to the information provider's delivery service, to use the caller's telephone device to access more specific information or further information or to talk to other callers during the call.

     (5) "Telecommunications company" includes every corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership, and person, their lessees, trustees, or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, and every city or town owning, operating, or managing any facilities used to provide telecommunications for hire, sale, or resale to the general public within the state of Washington.

     (6) "Interexchange carrier" means a carrier providing transmissions between local access and transport areas interstate or intrastate.

     (7) "Billing services" means billing and collection services provided to information providers whether by the local exchange company or the interexchange carrier.

     (8) "Program message" means the information that a caller hears or receives upon placing a call to an information provider.

     (9) "Advertisement" includes all radio, television, or other broadcast, video, newspaper, magazine, or publication, billboard, direct mail, print media, telemarketing, or any promotion of an information delivery service, program, or number, and includes brochures, pamphlets, fliers, coupons, promotions, or the labeling of products or in-store communications circulated or distributed in any manner whatsoever. "Advertisement" does not include any listing in a white page telephone directory. In a yellow page telephone directory, "advertisement" includes only yellow page display advertising.

     (10) "Subscriber" means the person in whose name an account is billed.

     (11) "Does business in Washington" includes providing information delivery services to Washington citizens, advertising information delivery services in Washington, entering into a contract for billing services in Washington, entering into a contract in Washington with a telecommunications company or interexchange carrier for transmission services, or having a principal place of business in Washington.