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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!ihnp4!ihuxl!seifert
From: seifert@ihuxl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Transmission of caller's phone number to called phone
Message-ID: <562@ihuxl.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Sep-83 09:44:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxl.562
Posted: Wed Sep 14 09:44:12 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 15-Sep-83 00:45:25 EDT
References: <1041@utcsstat.UUCP>
Organization: BTL Naperville, Il.
Lines: 59

If someone/some company sends you "obscene" material through
the US mail, there is a form you can fill out which forces
them to quit sending you mail.  And you may define "obscene"
as anything you please (e.g. junk ads).

Why isn't there something similar for telephones?  After all,
its worse to get a phone call at an inconvenient time than
it is to get an extra piece of junk mail to throw away.
(my opinion)

All I could find in the phone book (Illinois Bell) was:

	How to handle unwanted sales calls

	If you do not want to talk with a person
	selling a product or service by telephone
	just say "No thank you," and hang up.
	
If the calls are "obscene", "harassing", or "threatening" it
says to call your Service Center or Police Department. 
Occasional sales calls probably don't qualify. If they
call obsurdly frequently, say several times a day, this would
probable be "harassment".  But what about a call every few
weeks? Multiply this by *lots* of companies and you have
a real problem.  Sure we can all run out and buy a automatic
answering machine to screen calls with, but is this the best
solution?  Why can't there be some way to prevent them from
calling us, like there is with the US mail?

	A partial solution would be to screen calls based on the
calling number.  This could be done by a magic box on your phone
line, or better yet, at the central office.  The caller would
get a standard message saying that the callee does not wish to
recieve calls from them.  This has some problems such as a
company may very well have multiple lines it uses to place
junk phone calls from, and you would have to "unsubscribe"
from all of them before the calls stopped.  And the "unsubscription"
would have to expire after a period of time, since phone numbers
change owners from time to time.

	Maybe there could be a magic button sequence you could
use to activate a feature in the central office which would
send a message to the last number that called you informing
them that you no longer wished to recieve calls from them
(the person/company/whatever) and this could have some
sort of legal teeth to it.  This would be the equivalent
of the form you fill out to stop junk mail.  Seems easy
enough to implement, once everyone has electronic switching
and the calling number.

	I guess I just see unlisted numbers as the wrong
solution to the problem. You can still get junk calls
on an unlisted number if they try every possible number
rather than going through the phone book.

			Dave Seifert
			ihnp4!ihuxl!seifert
		
note: the opinions expressed above are my own.