----- Original Message ----- From: "John C Klensin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Bill Cunningham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "Stephen Sprunk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 9:16 PM Subject: Re: namedroppers, continued
> > > --On Monday, 09 December, 2002 17:49 -0500 Bill Cunningham > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I haven't personally tried myself to opt out. But I've read > > they have the form. If they told you they don't have a form to > > sort out junk mail for you I'd say they were full out it. I'd > > call the Postmaster General's office. > > Bill, > > For the US Post Office, they don't have the form. In another > context, I've been over this with the Postal Inspection Service. > They have two other forms and models, one of which is probably > getting confused with this. > > (1) You can decline to receive the particular form of junk mail > that is addressed to "occupant", "boxholder", or similar generic > terms. For that, there is a form. > > (2) You can also decide that particular types of materials, > identifed by specific description (nearly impossible in most > cases) or source is obscene. Once you do that, and perform the > relevant rituals, it becomes illegal for identified sources to > send the stuff to you. In general, you can't get the post > office to open all of your mail and do content filtering to be > sure it doesn't meet your criteria for obscenity. And you > probably wouldn't want to, since that would require authorizing > them to open and read all of your mail. But it can be an > effective way to prevent a particular sender for sending you > specific kinds of materials, since the penalties for sending > obscene materials through the mails are quite severe. > > If it is addressed to you, by name and matching address, they > are, as Stephen indicated, legally required to deliver it > (unless it falls under the prohibitions of (2) above). So, > oddly, you can opt out of "untargeted" mailings, but not out of > "targeted" ones. > > john I checked 39USC and 39CFR955 I guess the postal service maintains a list if you want to not receive mailing for sexually oriented materials, sweepstakes, and pandering solicitations. But that's about it. As far as the USPS goes. >
