Australian phone book content not protected by copyright [telecom]

I thought the US Govt wasn't allowed to copyright anything? Or is the Post Office exempt from that since it is now a separate "Service" as opposed to a regular Department of the govt? (It's hard to believe today, but I think the postmaster general was once a full level cabinet member; this was discontinued when they created the Postal Service in the 1970s).

One year the P.O. sent me a state Zip+4 directory. It was a nice as a regular zip code directory.

M/S Word has long had a facility to print a bar code above an address with the zip or zip+5 code in it. Unfortunately, my PC's printers were always lousy at printing envelopes so it was a feature I rarely used. But if I were printing a group of mailing labels via M/S Word I certainly would use the feature.

I once heard that the post office has people working out of their homes sorting mail that isn't machine readable (eg handwritten letters and postcards). An image of the front of a letter is displayed on the computer screen and the person keys in the address and the proper zip code/routing information is bar coded on the mail. The technology to do this sort of thing is certainly easy. Anyone know if they actually do this?

Returning to telecom, at one time some other countries had their post office also run their telephone system. Is that still the case today?

I'm making absolutely no judgement on the practice or the topic in general. There has been controversy about abortion foes placing ads in the yellow pages under "abortion services" trying to get women to call them instead. My guess is it's a problem yellow page publishers wish would just go away or the government would instruct them how to handle it. They can't win either way and besides, how can they verify each and every ad is legit?

About 15 years ago an entry appeared in the Melbourne/Palm Bay (FL) white pages published by BellSouth. The name was Jablome Haywood, but the first and last names were swapped as is always the case with personal names in the white pages. Needless to say it didn't appear the following year.

John

Prostitution is listed, but not by that name. It is called "escort services" or "models". The Las Vegas yellow pages has hundreds of pages of ads for escort services.

Even where prostitution is legal, namely rural Nevada, not all of the yellow pages have that classification. Here in Pahrump, NV, prostitution is legal, the yellow pages of the incumbent phone company, AT&T, does not have that classification. We alo have two independent phone books. One does not list them. The other does; it lists 5 establishments, and 2 of them have full-page ads.

Dick

Actually, that capability was removed in 2007, apparently at the post office's request. I don't recall the reasons - something about the bar code being reserved for bulk mailing and a concern about the accuracy of the address used to create the code I think.

Actually, that capability was removed in 2007, apparently at the post office's request. I don't recall the reasons - something about the bar code being reserved for bulk mailing and a concern about the accuracy of the address used to create the code I think.

........ What?, I thought it was listed in the "Political Lobbyist" section?

Old age is obviously confusing me.......

The copyright notice appears on ZIP Code directories from the 1960's, when the post office was still an executive department and not an independent agency.

They removed support for the POSTNET barcode several versions ago. POSTNET barcode represents a 12-digit number: 11-digit Delivery Point ZIP Code plus a check digit. The Delivery Point ZIP Code includes 9 digits for the ZIP+4 and two additional digits to allow sequencing by delivery point. The delivery point digits were initially calculated with a simple algorithm, the last two digits of the street address. The current algorith is much more complicated to allow sequencing of mail by secondary address element (apartment and suite number) required in certain multiple unit buildings (although not typically in buildings with three apartments or fewer). A lookup in the Address Information System database is required to know which buildings require encoding of secondary address elements.

When the algorithm changed, the post office requested that Microsoft remove the feature as it didn't want the lookup and encoding performed without the use of certified software. Microsoft didn't want to compete in the commercial mailing list and address management software market and never published certified software to perform these functions.

A kludge, if you really really want Microsoft Word's mail merge function to print qualifying barcodes on your letters, is to provide numeric representations of the barcode to an outdated version of Microsoft Word after having the lookup performed with certified software. Saves you from buying expensive new software or learning how to program, although the barcode itself is readily handled as a font.

The POSTNET barcode is a 2-state barcode made up of 62 bars, 2 frame bars plus sequences of five bars representing 11 digits plus the check digit. The bars themselves are full and half bars above a baseline. The baseline is significant as the tall bars have ascenders and there are no descenders.

Starting in May, 2011, unless it gets delayed again, Intelligent Mail Barcodes will be required on letters and flats claiming automation discounts, and the POSTNET barcode will no longer be used when preparing mail. These are 4-state barcodes, encoding 31 digits and comprising 65 bars. As the bars come in four flavors (four states) instead of two, more information may be encoded. The four states are tracker (short bar), tracker with ascender, tracker with descender, and full bar (tracker with ascender and descender). The barcode will be used to encode data from a number of different programs in addition to the Delivery Point ZIP Code, some of which currently use a second POSTNET barcode in the address block. Yes, it can include a serial number assigned by the mailer to the mailpiece.

More information than you want to know is here:

It's certainly possible that such remote encoding work can be performed at home, instead of in a datacenter. I don't know where the work is performed any more. There used to be a great many remote encoding centers, one for several major plants, set up temporarily till optical character recognition technology improved to the point that fewer and fewer human eyes were required to encode the address block. By the way, letters that have been through remote encoding have a red barcode on the back, which is an ID number, to match the piece to the machine that sprays on the barcode for the Delivery Point ZIP Code.

It's typical in Europe that the government telephone monopoly was through the postal and telecom administration, but many of these have been partly or fully privatized, including the some privatization of post office functions. Travelers would know to use the banks of pay phones at the post office to make cheaper calls than in their hotel rooms. I don't know where these government telecom monopolies through the post office continue to exist.

NOT EXACTLY.

At least where multi-unit dwellings (apt bldgs,etc.) are concerned.

Last condo building I lived in, there were THREE separate, valid ZIP+4 codes I could use for my mail. (still are, according to the USPS zip-code locater web-page.) One was valid for any building with an odd-numbered address with in the same 'hundreds', the second uniquely identified the building, _only_, and the third identified a _block_ of units within the building.

The additional digits mentioned are -not- part of the 'ZIP' coding system, but are a two digit 'delivery point' and a check digit that are encoded into the Postnet DPBC (delivery point bar code), or IMC (intelligent mail barcode) The delivery-point ID and the ZIP+4 may change *independently* of each other.

In the early days of the DBP, the 2-digit value _was_"typically", the last two digits the street address. This is NO LONGER a valid assumption, as the DPB values have been refined to differentiate between recipients at the same street address (office suites, apts, etc.)

Not to mention the fact that the DPB value for a particular 'mailbox' will

The fact that _some_ portions of a work exhibit the requisite degree of creativity does -not- mean that -everything- in said work is automatically so protected. *ONLY* the 'creative expression' component in a work is protected by copyright. Any and all 'facts of nature' embodied _in_ that work are =NOT= protected by that copyright.

It's not that you can't claim copyright on a publication that contains 'facts', but that copyright on the publication does _not_ extend to any 'facts' contained within that publication.

Copyright does -not- protect the 'ideas' underlying any publication, only that particular _creative_expression_ of those ideas. Facts are not protectible/protected because _everyone_ will/does express them in essentially the same way.

In Feist v Rural Tel. it was claimed that someone who extracted the, names, addresses, and phone numbers, from the white pages of a telco- published directory, and used those 'facts' to produce their own directory was infringing on the copyright of the publishing telco. The U.S. Sup. Ct. held, regarding white pages directory listings, which were found to be

(a) only a compilation of 'facts' (not subject to copyright protection, in and of themselves) and (b) being organized by an entirely mechanical process based on a 'natural' ordering,

That there was "no infringement" *if* someone:

(a) 'copied' those _facts_, and (b) applied the same 'natural' ordering thereunto.

Obviously, it the 'same' natural ordering was non-infringing, then neither would be a 'similar, but not identical' one -- being 'less close' to the original than the action already determined to be non-infringing.

It was true in many (most?) countries at one time. Usually by a department of government ending with the letters PTT. (Post, telegraph, telephone). Privately owned telegraph and telephone companies were once a rarity in many countries of the world.

Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

Not connected with abortion in any way, we once were friends [with a woman] whose husbnad's father was Richard Long, [and he] went by "Dick", and had an insurance agency in Wichita Falls, Texas. They told us his agency was listed as "Long Dick Insurance Agency." We later visited them in Wichita Falls and of course I looked to see if it were true. It was -- big as life in the Wichita Falls diredtory. They said the telco had tried to get him to list it several other ways, but he refused. After all, it was the legal name of his business.

Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com snipped-for-privacy@aol.com =0A=0A=0A

You correctly observe the hierarchical nature of the database. In city delivery, the default encoding is either "blockface", one side of the street between intersections, or "hundreds", one side of the street until there is an increment to the next hundreds group, whichever is smaller. By default, a street address (not necessarily a building) with at least four units gets a ZIP+4, and there can be finer encodings if there are a great many units.

If a firm has a lot of incoming mail, it might get one or more ZIP+4 codes, but this has become less necessary with encoding to delivery point. Encoding to a firm would be the finest encoding of all.

You're not correct that each ZIP+4 is valid, for grosser encodings aren't used where finer encodings are available. If you gave a correspondent the ZIP+4 of the blockface but a different ZIP+4 is used specific to a small group of apartments, the system should print a barcode of the finest sortation level, otherwise sequencing is more difficult and they try to avoid having the carrier do any at all.

In fact, a mailer claiming qualification for automation discounts MUST use the finest sortation available, which means that if a secondary address element is missing, he must obtain it, or remove the piece from the presort and send it as a residual piece. In that case, it's smarter to send the unsortable pieces at single-piece first-class rates, which happen to be the same as residual rates anyway, to receive First-Class service.

Uh, yes, the eleven digits are a Delivery Point ZIP Code.

That's not correct. If enough address elements are known, then when the lookup is performed, the ZIP+4 code for the finest sortation level is returned (even though the lookup returns ZIP+4 codes for grosser sortation levels). If necessary address elements are missing, such as the apartment number in a high-rise building, then the mailpiece isn't encoded to the delivery point (mailbox) and if the system hasn't corrected it, it'll be in a group of unsequenced pieces for the address.

I know firms that have their own 5-digit zip.

Aside: there's the classical mail-routing story about mail that got

-delivered- (routinely, mind you) with nothing more than 3 five-digit numbers for the address.

Mail going to someone in prison, first number was the prisoner ID, second was the P.O.box where all prisoner mail was sent, and third was the zip-code. :)

I know the 'groser', as you put it, ZIP+4 encodings *work*. Mail addressed with one of those codes is delivered, and w/o any nag notes from the PO to correct it. _Unlike_ the situation if you use an incorrect code.

That's the advantage of having a human in the process to deliver the mail. If the automated process were to route the letter strictly by ZIP+4 Code, then any ZIP+4 Code composing the carrier route should get the letter to the correct carrier, but that's not what happens in practice.

Hypothetical 50 unit apartment building, one street address, plus management office and five small businesses: convenience grocery story, nail salon, hair dresser, barber, and dry cleaning drop-off counter. There is a large mail room serving the residents with one box per apartment. To simplify the hypothetical, box numbers correspond with apartment numbers, which isn't necessarily the case. So, correspondents should use an apartment number with the street address. As the management office and each of the small businesses would be open during typical hours the mailman would stop by the building, they don't have boxes in the mail room and the carrier enters their stores or office to deliver the mail.

The correspondent knows the street address and the correct name of the addressee. The secondary address element is missing (apartment number). The mail gets batched with other mail for the building with missing address elements, with a Delivery Point ZIP Code, but doesn't get encoded with its true delivery point and doesn't get sequenced. Now, a carrier reasonably familiar with the building should be able to figure out which apartment that addressee lives in, but a substitute carrier won't and will Nixie it. Sometimes building management provides the carrier with an alphabetized list of current residents that it keeps up to date, but that cannot be counted on.

If the post office knows about it, every delivery point is encoded in the database, every single one, so every secondary address element for

Quite frankly, the system ignores ZIP+4 codes and barcodes supplied by the sender under many circumstances. The system routes to barcodes on presorted mail that correctly encode a delivery point, only, and ignores them on single-piece mail unless the correct Facing Identification Mark barcode (FIM) is used on the envelope, which is in the upper right-hand corner to the left of the postage. The delivery point is determined by parsing the entire address block. If ZIP Code doesn't match city-state, it's ignored. If ZIP+4 doesn't match the street address plus secondary address element, it's ignored. If the address block barcode doesn't encode the actual delivery point, it's ignored and a corrected barcode is sprayed in the lower right-hand corner (sometimes with the carrier route and delivery point ZIP Code added in human readable fashion). If a barcode in the lower right-hand corner already exists that requires correction, a label with the corrected barcode is applied. If the address block cannot be parsed to determine the delivery point, it's image is sent to remote encoding for a human to parse, or if that doesn't work, to the delivery post office anyway to attempt to figure out which carrier route it belongs to.

In the olden days, distribution clerks were ordered to route mailpieces in which the city-state and ZIP Code didn't match to the post office of the ZIP Code, but the automated database matching attempts to look up the delivery point assuming the city-state is correct.

The bar code in MS Word (vers 6, c 1994) seems to just be taken from either a plain five digit zip code or a zip+4 nine digit zip code. It isn't one of the extended bar codes with the carrier route, etc, data, and doesn't seem to be dependent on the actual address, just the zip code. In other words, it appears to just convert the five or nine digits into a bar code.

Are you saying this barcode is obsolete and no longer has any meaning to the post office? I'm not talking about getting a postal discount, rather, just to expedite the processing of the mail. For instance, the return envelope of bills often has a similar bar code on it, presumably to get it to the delivery address faster.

Thanks.

Old Memories:

2) Anyone remember the old postal zones, eg "Brooklyn 15, NY"? I think they were introduced in WW II in cities. In many cases the old zone became the last two digits of the zip code when zip codes came out, eg "Brooklyn NY 11215"

Checking the standard, ZIP+4 barcodes are no longer allowed for business reply mail, even though the ZIP+4 is unique to the account.

If other than a POSTNET or Intelligent Mail barcode is used in the address block, it should be ignored by sorting equipment. If it's placed in the lower right-hand corner, I doubt it'll get sorted, but looped back to be remotely encoded and then labeled with a correcting POSTNET barcode to the delivery point.

There was a very brief period in which 5-digit barcodes were used by sorting equipment, but it would be used for sorting purposes only on presorted mail. I don't think it would have been used for sorting if on a single-piece letter with FIM.

Right now, the post office is sequencing flats in delivery point order, although I don't know if it's fully deployed nationwide yet. Where it is deployed, ZIP+4 barcodes would be ignored, and I don't think barcodes on single-piece flats are used for sorting. Engineering on flats is rather tricky as it's never been a requirement to orient the delivery address parallel to the longest dimension and the label the post office applies to add a delivery point barcode can be applied in a number of places. I have no idea which location is the priority location for correcting purposes, or if a mail handler has to obliterate barcodes and remove labels in order for a correcting label to be applied.

Those are called "courtesy reply envelopes", and they are required to have POSTNET barcodes on them when included in presorted mailings.

Here's what happens with single-piece mail. There is something of a mixed mail stream of letters and flats, although if there's time, mail handlers will segregate outbound mail at the delivery unit before sending it to the plant. Letters and flats have separate mail streams. Then letters hit the facer-canceller machine. This machine checks for postage. Luminescent and phosphor tags are used on stamps, and flourescent ink for postage meter indicia. The facer-canceller also checks for FIM (facing identification mark) which is adjacent to the postage area. Such mail has a separate processing stream that skips encoding steps as it has a POSTNET barcode already.

Significantly, the facer-canceller does not check for the POSTNET barcode itself, so if it was applied without the FIM, the letter does not skip encoding steps. Therefore, there is no point in barcoding single-piece letters if the FIM isn't applied as well.

A city had zones as soon as multiple stations with delivery units were created. The zones might have been drawn in anticipation of the construction of future stations as soon as population warranted, and in the meantime those areas would have been delivered from an existing station in a neighboring zone, possibly as a rural route. These zones must have been numbered upon creation and would have gone back decades prior to WWII, but it's always seemed strange to me that mailers weren't instructed to use them until later. Three-digit numbering of sectional center facility areas was also proposed around the same time period, but not implemented as part of the familiar five-digit ZIP Code till 1963.

But the return envelopes for bills also has a "Facing Identifing Mark" FIM just to the left of the space for the stamp which tells the equipment it has a Zip code already.

There is a different FIM for "Business Reply Envelopes" (for sending orders and the like) that tells the machine the postage is to be collected (or charged to the account of the reciieent) on delivery.

Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

That's the way it was in greater Boston. We lived in Medford 55, Mass. (no two-letter abbreviations then) When 5-digit ZIP codes came in, we became Medford, Mass. 02155.

The more rural areas did not have the two-digit zone numbers. When

The old two-digit zones were not assigned to the communities in alphabetic order. So an alphabetic listing would not have sequential ZIP codes.

That was sloppily written.

Outgoing mail picked up by carriers and from street collection boxes is a mixed mail stream of letters and flats; generally, parcels are handled separately. The mail handler at the delivery unit does what he can to separate flats from letters and remove mail with no postage before sending it to the plant. He also tries to separate metered mail, which if it can be faced, is supposed to skip the cancelling step.

At the plant, there are separate processing streams for letters and flats, although at the start of the process, any letters and flats still mixed together are mechanically segregated so that letters, only, head to the facer-canceller machines. Letter mail has little variation in facing: The delivery address block must be oriented toward the longest dimension and parallel to it and the postage area is in the upper right hand corner. At this point in the process, the machine detects the upper right hand corner by looking for the luminescent or phosphor tags on stamps (or the flourescent ink in meter marks as much metered mail never gets segregated from stamped mail to be cancelled) and orienting the mail, without looking for the address block. If FIM is present adjacent to the postage, then that mail is segregated into a mail stream to skip the encoding step as the POSTNET barcode is present.

Flats have a different process for cancelling as the postage and delivery address block may appear in any of several areas, and facing of flats is little more than orienting the side with the postage and delivery address block "up".