[Evolution-hackers] Dynamically fetching city, state info from zip codes

[Caleb Groom <caleb hhhenterprises com>]

A feature that I'd like to see in Evolution is the ability to lookup the
city and state information based on a given zip code.

Some may think this would be feature creap, to others it would just be
something cool.

I know this has already been discussed before
(http://lists.ximian.com/archives/public/evolution/2001-November/014715.html), but it seems the answer was 'this information isn't public domain so forget about it'.

However, I am wondering aloud if we can put US zip, city, and state
relationships into public domain.  

The USPS site allows you to query this information via a web form but
it's TOS does not allow screen scraping.  Here's the copy and paste from
their FAQ:

"ZIP+4 Look-Up is intended for interactive use, not automated script
processing. Although we do not intend to impose a limit on the number of
address inquiries we allow a customer to request in a given session. If
we determine that our open-access policy is being abused or
overburdened, we will have to review it. Regardless, we do not intend to
offer batch processing capabilities via this service."

They go on to suggest you pay a commercial company for a complete
database.

My idea is to use the numbers in the Evolution community to make many
valid requests and pool the results.  It does not violate the USPS TOS
and it sets the information free.

<stallman-voice>
"Information wants to be free".
</stallman-voice>

Yes, its only for the US.  Yes, some may think its not worth it.  But I
really like the idea.  :)