Protesters Dump Phone Books at AT&T

Wondering what to do with the stacks of phone books that show up in the lobby of your apartment building every month? Don't try sending them back to AT&T, because not even the phone company wants them.

A group of protesters attempted to return their books at an AT&T building in San Francisco this week, but were ordered to take their heavy load and leave according to the SF Appeal. They came bearing 1,500 copies of the anachronistic nuisances, collected from recipients who have no need for the clutter.

They dumped the pile on AT&T's doorstep, just as the company does 1.6 million times, twice a year for every San Francisco resident. But because the protesters lacked a permit, police ordered them to clean up the mess. (Do you recall giving AT&T a permit to dump its books in front of your house?)

Meanwhile, the Board of Supervisors is mulling a plan for relief: under new legislation, phone books would only be distributed to people who asked for them. The companies that profit off of phone books are predictably displeased, pointing out that without their intrusive, irritating advertising, many people in the yellow pages industry would have to find more productive avenues of employment.

The new law would operate on a trial basis for three years, at which point the city would have the option to renew it.