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In article <8602110631.AA14409@ucbvax.berkeley.edu> Ralph.Hyre@IUS2.CS.CMU.EDU writes:
>
>What the government do (if anything) about possible abuses.  Will it be legal
>for a person to sell his own CNA database?  (If so, why hasn't anyone done
>this before?  

Here in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area, there are four alternatives:

1) There is a publication known as Cole's (I think) directory, available to
   businesses and without restriction to the public at libraries, which is a 
   compilation of name, address, and phone number data organized by name, 
   by address, and by phone number.  The information is collected by periodic 
   door-to-door survey.   It is possible to keep your name out of this 
   directory without a monthly charge.

2) Polk's directory is very similar to Cole's above in every respect, including
   availablilty, except that I found it a little more current and complete.

3) To quote from page 2 of the 1986 Minneapolis Consumer Directory (Yellow 
   Pages):

   "STREET ADDRESS DIRECTORIES AVAILABLE

   "Street Address directories are available for several Northwestern Bell
   communities.  Listings are arranged in street address order with the
   corresponding name and phone number following each listing.  In a separate
   section, listings are arranged in telephone number sequence.  Northwestern
   Bell publishes Street Address directories semi-annually for Minneapolis
   and St. Paul, Minnesota, Omaha, Nebraska, and Des Moines and Cedar Rapids,
   Iowa.  Call your Service Representative for pricing and ordering 
   information."

   I was able to peruse copies of these directories at my leisure at the larger
   county libraries in the area, but they want some form of ID so that you do
   not walk off with them, as they contain a notice inside the covers stating
   that they are leased and old editions must be returned in order to get new
   ones.

For the three cases above, the unconventional sortings are known variously as
pink pages and blue pages.

4) To quote from page 11 of ibid. :

   "CURRENT NAME & ADDRESS SERVICE"

   "1 + 402-580-2255"

   "With this service you can obtain the name and address for any listed
   telephone number.  This service is updated daily and is available 24 hours
   a day, seven days a week and serves Northwestern Bell's five states 
   (Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota).  For 50 cents, plus
   the long distance charge, you can obtain 2 listings per call.  Non-published
   numbers are not available.

   "For more information on current name and address service in Minnesota call
   535-5316."

This is essentially a very current version of the published directories above,
except that evidently "non-directory" listings are also available.

>As I understand it, CNA stands for Called Number Authority.  The phone company
>keeps a list of number-person correspondences, which are available in many
>cities by simply calling (presumably) secret phone number.  (The CNA operator
>answers and says 'Number, please?', you give number, they give name.)  The
>general public does not/is not supposed to have access to this information.

The number is obviously not secret here.  It is from the quoted text that I
had assumed that CNA meant Current Name & Address.

Some public libraries have a collection of recent telephone directories for most
major cities around the world.  It may be possible to glean this information
for other cities by consulting such a collection.

-- 
Honk honk!  Why, it's Wobbles, the goose!

				Jeff Woolsey
				...ihnp4{!stolaf}!umn-cs!woolsey
				woolsey@umn-cs.csnet