I can't find the piece of legislation (before OPSI puts stuff up) but IIRC it's obscene calls that are illegal, not prank calls.

As most of fonejacker's calls are pranks but not obscene, it's a different kettle of fish. Obscenity is a bizzare concept though.

Spanner case : could be interesting, like your thinking but I don't think it's relevant. And if another Spanner came up tomorrow quite possibly human rights laws would be used (right to a private life etc.).

Disclaimer : I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice yada yada yada.

Quote from duke_toaster :

As most of fonejacker's calls are pranks but not obscene, it's a different kettle of fish. Obscenity is a bizzare concept though.

As with most law pertaining to public order its incredibly subjective (meaning the law itself is quite fragile and open to misuse by the state - this is just something that's inherent in the nature of public order law).

I'm paraphrasing here and may have time to look it up later, but if I remember correctly the Telecommunications Act also includes calls which cause annoyance or inconvenience (I think in the same paragraph that relates to obscenity, I'm happy to be corrected on that though...)

This has only been in the news so long because the government want it to be headline news, so they aint! Why else would Brown make a statement. Hes just feeding the fire, hoping the smoke will cover his mess.

I for one am quite happy with this being news worthy, instead of the continual "just in case you didn't know, there's a CREDIT CRUNCH" headlines.

and those awful graphics the BBC use whenever they talk about the credit crunch

Quote from nihil :

I'm paraphrasing here and may have time to look it up later, but if I remember correctly the Telecommunications Act also includes calls which cause annoyance or inconvenience (I think in the same paragraph that relates to obscenity, I'm happy to be corrected on that though...)

Having checked the answer is yes, but it is a grey area that the CPS would quite rightly deem too vague to bother.

(Same disclaimers as previous post).