Below is a letter I recently sent to Yahoo regarding the discontinuation of their reverse telephone number lookup service. [ http://www.yahoo.com/docs/info/people_faq.html#numbers ] Dear Yahoo: When I saw your reverse-number lookup had disappeared, I was surprised, and over the past several days have grown angry about it. I wouldn't even be able to say I was angry at Yahoo, it would be nice for Yahoo to show backbone, but that is definitely something "above and beyond" what could be expected of a company such as yours, I am an admin and I certainly know what it feels like when a user puts up a controversial web page (or spams, or whatever). The thing that really angers me is that large corporations and institutions, and upper class people already have access to not just reverse lookup capability for listed numbers, but for unlisted numbers as well. I can get a CD-ROM for the type of service you were selling from a store for $100 or so, and unlike yours, can use it to easily created junk mailing lists etc. And for more money I can get access to people's unlisted numbers from on-line services and other sources, plus a lot more information. I should point out here that your service was useful to me for non-"nefarious" purposes. For example, I often have phone numbers written on scraps of paper with no indication as to who/what the number is. I suppose my co-workers and I should always write down the name of everyone we're calling back over it, even if it isn't necessary at that moment, but such is life. Reverse lookup helped decode these numbers, mysterious numbers on my phone bill, and so forth. I can understand the people who wander onto your page and dislike the fact that people can get their name and address from their telephone number. But that is _not_ the issue, because corporations and people who can afford to pay $300 for "Tickle Me Elmo" already has access to that information, and even more which is not even in the public domain. The issue is that this information is being taken away from people who can not afford it. What's wrong with giving the average lower/middle class person access to that information? Well, obviously a lot to some people. With all the hubbub over whether or not naked girls will be displayed on our screens, at least in the U.S., the more dull background maneuvers - the shutdown of anon.penet.fi, the continued mess of encryption export, CyberSitter's secret censorship of political content etc., forever creep forward. When all is said and done, you were simply giving less privileged individuals access to powerful information. Well, these types of letters can run on fairly long, I've tried to keep it as brief as possible while still containing my points. As I said in the beginning, I do not really blame Yahoo for this, I think some people must have been too flustered in getting the access to power which had previously been unknown to them, and blamed their confusion and fear of it on Y(ah)ou. You might even say the effort was valiant to begin with. I wish I had the resources to purchase a reverse database quarterly in order to give it away free (or maybe even ad-sponsored, how else would I pay it?) on the web, plus the costs of web hosting, possible legal costs etc., but alas, I do not. I forget what the title of John Markoff's article on the closing of Stallman's free account base at ai.mit.edu, so I'll just say Au Revoir reverse lookup, I wish I could say I'm waiting for your return, but I suspect I shall be seeing more incidents like yours in the future. Dennis Sheil dennis@gonif.com http://www.gonif.com