Mario: Mario Rups <[log in to unmask]> said: > As long as IAF remains free, they are *not* using the info for commercial > purposes, are they? From: http://www.iaf.net/advertisinginfo.htm | Advertising Rates | | Advertising rates are based on volume of ad impressions. | | Volume Price per Ad Total Price | 10,000 .03 $300 | 100,000 .025 $2,500 | 1,000,000 .02 $20,000 | | We offer a 15% discount to all recognized ad agencies Nah... I guess your right, they're doing this just for personal pleasure... nothing commercial here. :-) > Second, although they cannot copyright the INFORMATION, they *can* > copyright the compilation, which is exactly what they have done. I guess so... I had not thought of it this way. However, usually when your name is going to be published somehwere, like the phone book example you gave, they tell you in advance and give you the option not to publish. I called the number on their advertising page (770-751-6721) and got connected to a voicemail system... no humans involved. If you don't get a response from them (I don't expect you will) regarding having your name and address removed, I suggest you begin contacting their advertisers to advise them of the improper methods used to build their database without the consent of listed parties. Currently, there only appears to be one advertiser: Internet Security Systems, Inc. 2000 Miller Court West, Norcross, Georgia 30071 Voice: (404)-441-2531 Fax: (404)-441-2431 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Web: http://www.iss.net I called and spoke to a woman who said that the President of the company (I think she said his name was Bruce Newnan) would call me back on this after I related that I was not at all happy with the conduct of the company they were supporting with advertising revenue. I think it is work noting that when I used their service to backward search for [log in to unmask], it came back with: 1. Name: John Smith E-mail: [log in to unmask] Last update: 11/09/95 Organization: Innovative Insights Address: 715 Newport Hollow Alpharetta, GA 30202 USA I would not be the least bit surprised if these separate places are one in the same, but if the iss.net business is truly a independent operation, I just have to believe they would be concerned to find they were in bed with some local yokel who had just stolen 3 million names from lists and now the managers of those lists were now royally peeved and would sooner allow their system to explode before they'd buy a security system from someone advertising on IAF.NET. I doubt this can be fully turned around, but this is one of the the most serious threats to privacy on the Internet that I have seen come along and these folks are actually going to make money off it! We do not need to make it easy for them by just rolling over and going back to sleep. Cheers Mark Hunnibell Email: [log in to unmask] KIDLINK Gopher/WWW Coordinator http://www.connix.com/~markh/index.html