Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!caen!uwm.edu!lll-winken!telecom-request From: Barton.Bruce@camb.com (Barton F. Bruce) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Supreme Court: White Pages Not Copyrightable Message-ID: Date: 31 Mar 91 07:10:50 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc. Lines: 53 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 258, Message 4 of 11 In article , Robert J Woodhead writes: > I do have some qualms about the court decision, however. The phone > company does spend money to create the entries in the white pages, and > it seems to me that rival directory companies are getting a free ride This really misses the basic idea that the phone company ought NOT own YOUR number. Now with alternate phone companies being able to provide you dialtone this is more significant. They are paid well to manage the dwindling phone number resourse. I am in no way suggesting they should be paid any less than they are now for providing local white pages. I get really POd when I have to battle to get ALL the Metro Boston books I am entitled to, and when 411 is so badly configured that you MUST tell them what phone book (Central, North, South, West) to look in or they won't even look for you. 411 was bearable because it was free, but now they 'traded' charging for 411 for providing 911. AOS companies currently deserve every foul name they are called. But I bet an alternate 411 service here in MA that found what you were looking for without your knowing which book to use would be a big hit, and I bet they could charge less and make money. But even without an alternate 411, consider the trees saved, and $s saved by optionally providing white pages on CDROM. Each disc labeled and boxed is well under $2 to make. The 'free' Boston four white books pile can't be that cheap. I would instantly opt for a disc rather than paper, and would even consider $10 'ok' until their volume got high enough that their mastering costs became irrelevant. What does NYNEX want for that CD? Try $10,000 per year, or MORE if networked beyond 1 PC! Phone numbers are a crude temporary necessity they have imposed on us. Wouldn't it be nice to simply speak into the phone and say 'my friend Tony Jones's third office line please', and from the random pay phone be voice recognised as you and thereby indicating which Tony Jones is being refered to. In the meantime, the post office shouldn't 'own' my street address, and the phone company shouldn't 'own' my electronic (phone) one. [Moderator's Note: The post office does not own your street address. The only organization which possibly 'owns' your street address is your municipal government, which if they operate like ours, has at one time or another passed an ordinance naming the streets and detirmining the measurements used to provide each parcel of land with one or more uniquely identifying numbers. PAT]