Is Muddleworks scanning your DNS too?

Danny Mayer mayer at gis.net
Mon Dec 2 03:10:21 UTC 2002


At 10:49 PM 11/30/02, Joseph S D Yao wrote:
>On Sat, Nov 30, 2002 at 08:45:03PM -0500, Danny Mayer wrote:
> > At 10:59 AM 11/29/02, Joseph S D Yao wrote:
> > > > What is the status of DNS data?  Is it in the public domain?  Or is
> > > > it implicitly copyright, but made available for limited use (similar
> > > > to the data in published telephone directories).
> > >
> > >Data in published telephone books is the property of the telephone
> > >company, not of the subscriber.  Is this theft?
> >
> > I believe that telephone numbers, at least in the US, are still owned by
> > the telephone company. You just have the right to use it.
>
>I believe that it's a little more complicated than that - telephone
>numbers are regulated by some telco equivalent to the IANA, and handed
>out to the telcos for their use in some large [less large now than
>previously] batches.  The numbers are handed out by the telcos to their
>subscribers.  I do not know whether the numbers themselves are "owned"
>by anybody in that hierarchy.  The interesting information, of course,
>is the relationship between the numbers and the subscribers.  This is
>available through multiple telephone books, including the Criss-Cross
>directory at your local public library [the telco equivalent of reverse
>DNS].  It is available wherever either the subscriber or the telco
>[unless it is "unlisted"] chooses to publish it.  Does this make the
>information "public domain"?  Or is it "owned" by one of the above
>parties?  I certainly do not have the legal chops to argue it.  But I
>doubt that the telco would give away salable "rights", FWIW.

No need to go to the library. Let your mouse to the walking. Reverse
Lookups are available through Anywho: http://www.anywho.com/ though
I'm sure that there are others. Once you have the name to number list
it's easy enough to ask your database for the information from the
other end.

Danny

>--
>Joe Yao                         jsdy at center.osis.gov - Joseph S. D. Yao
>OSIS Center Systems Support                                     EMT-B
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