Telephone directory

In telephony, a telephone directory is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organisation that publishes the directory.

Content

Subscriber names are generally listed in alphabetical order, together with their postal or street address and telephone number. Every subscriber in the geographical coverage area is usually listed, but some subscribers can request the exclusion of their number from the directory. Their number is then said to be "unlisted" (American English) or "ex-directory" (British English). This also means that their Caller-ID on outbound calls is blank.

Related Topics:
Telephone number - American English - British English - Caller-ID

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Under current rules and practices, cell phone and Voice over IP listings are not included in telephone directories. Efforts to create cellular directories have met stiff opposition from several fronts, including a significant percentage of subscribers who seek to avoid telemarketers.

Related Topics:
Cell phone - Voice over IP - Telemarketer

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In 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (in Feist v. Rural) that telephone companies do not have a copyright on telephone listings, because copyright protects creativity and not the mere labor of collecting existing information. Within the geographical reach of the Court, the Feist ruling has resulted in the availability of many innovative telephone directory services on CD-ROM and the World Wide Web.

Related Topics:
U.S. Supreme Court - Feist v. Rural - Copyright - CD-ROM - World Wide Web

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