§ 396-ss. Access number notification. 1. Definitions. For the purpose of this section, the following words shall have the following meanings:

a. "Dial-up Internet service" means a service that, by employing telephone lines, offers the transmission, routing, or providing of connections for online communications, between or among points specified by a user, of material of the user's choosing, without modification to the content of the material as sent or received.

b. "Dial-up Internet service provider" means an entity that provides dial-up Internet service.

c. "Dial-up Internet service subscriber" means a person or entity who, by current or continuing contract or other continuing arrangement with a dial-up Internet service provider, receives or uses a dial-up Internet service provided by such dial-up Internet service provider.

2. Every dial-up Internet service provider that provides such service through one or more telephone numbers in telephone area codes located in New York state shall prominently post in bold capital letters, on every screen page on which Internet access service telephone numbers are set forth, whether contained on an Internet web site or elsewhere, the following notice:

WARNING: THE USE OF SOME OF THE FOLLOWING TELEPHONE NUMBERS MAY RESULT IN LONG DISTANCE CHARGES. IN SELECTING YOUR ACCESS NUMBER(S), PLEASE NOTE THAT ALTHOUGH AN ACCESS NUMBER MAY BE IN YOUR AREA CODE OR LOCATED IN YOUR GENERAL GEOGRAPHIC REGION, IT MAY NOT NECESSARILY BE A LOCAL NUMBER FOR YOU. YOU MAY INCUR SUBSTANTIAL TELEPHONE CHARGES IF YOU CHOOSE ACCESS NUMBERS THAT ARE NOT COVERED BY YOUR LOCAL CALLING PLAN.

WE URGE YOU TO CHECK WITH YOUR TELEPHONE COMPANY TO FIND OUT WHICH NUMBERS ARE LOCAL FOR YOU BEFORE USING A NUMBER FROM THIS LIST.

3. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision two of this section, a dial-up Internet service provider who provides such service through one or more telephone numbers in telephone area codes located in New York state who has sold or otherwise provided software to a dial-up Internet service subscriber prior to October twenty-fourth, two thousand five, when such software cannot be updated by such Internet service provider without action on the part of such dial-up Internet service subscriber to include the notice required under subdivision two of this section, and the contents of the screen page on which Internet access service telephone numbers are displayed is not contained on an Internet web site, may comply with the provisions of this section, for the purposes of such software and for such dial-up Internet service subscribers, by sending such dial-up Internet service subscribers known or reasonably believed to be using such software the notice set forth in subdivision two of this section, in either written or electronic form.

4. Every failure to comply with this section is a violation of article twenty-two-A of this chapter.