By Town Crier Staff Report

Steve Kirsch of Los Altos Hills made headlines last week on two major fronts, one attempting to thwart purveyors of junk faxes, the other helping Internet users with phone hookups.

The noted Silicon Valley entrepreneur and philanthropist slapped Orange County-based Fax.com with a $2.2 trillion class action lawsuit to stop unsolicited faxes, which he claims are unlawful.

Kirsch devoted a Web site, www.junkfax.org, to his cause. He noted that a federal law (TCPA) passed in 1991 makes it illegal to transmit any material via fax that advertises the commercial availability or quality of any property, goods or services without the recipient’s prior express invitation or permission.

“If the fax was deliberately sent to you (as most junk faxes are), federal law entitles you to recover a minimum of $500 and, depending on the judge’s discretion, up to $1,500 for each such fax that you receive,” Kirsch informed consumers.

Federal law applies in all 50 states and cannot be superseded by state law.

“You can sue in your local small claims court in many cases,” he said.

Suing the largest fax broadcasting company in Fax.com meets one Kirsch objective toward punishing fax broadcasters and telecommunications firms used by these broadcasters. Kirsch also wants to go after advertisers who use the broadcasters or fax directly, and educate the public on how to bring lawsuits against the offenders.

Kirsch noted he plans to use money from these suits to fund a nonprofit group aimed at educating the public and paying for the next round of suits.

With his new company, Propel, Kirsch also touted the creation of the Propel Accelerator, software that connects dial-up users to Web pages several times faster than normal.

The software reduces the amount of information computers receive over the Internet, allow pages to appear more quickly.

The result is akin to pulling a rabbit out of a hat, considering the limitations of dial-up and the failure of others who have similar claims.

The service costs about $5 a month and is available at propel.com.