telecom@ucbvax.ARPA (12/01/84)
From: Jon Solomon (the Moderator) <Telecom-Request@BBNCCA>
TELECOM Digest Fri, 30 Nov 84 16:57:10 EST Volume 4 : Issue 130
Today's Topics:
Phone wiring and "Hello, I'm a computer"
automated recordings (dial out)
Hello, I'm a computer
BBS Liability
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 84 21:23:50 PST
From: "Theodore N. Vail" <vail@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA>
To: telecom@bbncca.arpa
Subject: Phone wiring and "Hello, I'm a computer"
The first and fourth wires on a four-conductor modular plug are normally
used for modular jacks connected to one line of a key (push-button)
multi-line telephone system. Shorting them disables the "hold"
circuit and enables the telephone to be used. The "hold" circuit is
(traditionally) a "holding" relay across the telephone line, and the two
wires are connected in parallel with the coil, so that shorting them
removes current from the coil and the holding relay opens. Of course,
now there are electronic equivalents, but the circuitry at the telephone
remains the same. Signal levels are a few volts dc and the current is
the traditional "20" milliamperes.
------------------------------
I have received computer calls, with no human asking first if I wanted
to receive them. What laws, rules, regulations, etc., if any, would I
be breaking, if I set my auto-dialing modem to indefinitely dial the
number that the recording tells you to call for more information. My
modem will keep dialing until it gets a modem to answer. (Because of
its "linking" feature, it doesn't have the 15 call limitation that some
believe is required.)
ted
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 30-Nov-84 01:17:15 PST
From: Lauren Weinstein <vortex!lauren@RAND-UNIX.ARPA>
Subject: automated recordings (dial out)
To: TELECOM@MC
The rules regarding these devices vary from state to state. Here
in California, the law says that you are supposed to be asked by
a human whether or not you wish to hear the recording before it is
started, and they are supposed to monitor the line to drop the
recording if you hang up. So you can use automated techniques to
pick numbers and dial, but you "have" to let a person query the
callee.
Of course, these rules are sometimes ignored, and I (very rarely,
even with multiple phone lines) still get on occasional completely
automated call. They usually never tell you the name of the
company calling, just prompt you for various information.
I consider them to be a somewhat entertaining way to practice
my knowledge of Anglo-Saxon expletives.
--Lauren--
------------------------------
Date: 30 November 1984 12:24-EST
From: Ray Hirschfeld <RAY @ MIT-MC>
Subject: Hello, I'm a computer
To: cmacfarl @ BBNCCJ
I, too, have been getting more junk calls lately. I wonder if it's
possible to get a home 976 number. I wouldn't mind these calls if I
got a dollar for each one.
At one point I considered getting an unlisted number to eliminate
these nuisance calls. It burns me that the phone company charges not
only a whopper of a service charge for this, but a monthly charge as
well. And it wouldn't protect against dialers that try every possible
number rather than go through the book.
Ray
------------------------------
Date: 30 November 1984 15:00-EST
From: Ray Hirschfeld <RAY @ MIT-MC>
Subject: BBS Liability
To: telecom @ BBNCCA
There has been a lot of discussion recently about the liability of BBS
operators for credit card numbers posted on their systems. The people
contributing to this discussion seem to be polarized into two camps,
those who feel that only the person who posted the number can be held
responsible, and those who feel that, because the culprit cannot be
identified, this responsibility devolves upon the operator.
Neither position seems right to me. Neither the BBS operator nor the
person who posts the number is necessarily guilty of anything. Even
if the submission of the credit card number were not anonymous, it
seems to me that culpability is limited to those who use the number
fraudulently. Similarly, I would not hold Abbie Hoffman or his
publisher criminally liable for _Steal This Book_.
Slander/libel is a different matter, since the message is itself
damaging. But there is nothing inherently damaging about a number on
a bulletin board. I give out my mastercard number over the phone all
the time, and conceivably anybody who takes a phone order from me can
abuse it. I'm not doing anything illegal, though. If I post a
message on a BBS that says "my credit card number is so-and-so but I
don't authorize anybody to use it," I'm asking for trouble but I don't
think I'm breaking the law. If a number were posted with malicious
intent it might be different, but this seems like a very difficult
thing to prove.
I know very little about laws concerning these matters, so the above
is based solely on common sense, which has little to do with law. If
I'm way off base, please let me know.
------------------------------
End of TELECOM Digest
******************************