Jenny, do you own your number?

From Collision Detection:

On Ebay today, someone is auctioning their mobile number ''867-5309''
...
People believe that they own these things -- so they treat them like property even if they aren't. In the case of mobile numbers, this is likely to lead to some quite interesting culture clashes. What's going to happen when mobile-number auctioning becomes a really big thing? Will Verizon and Cingular and Sprint and all the other carriers suddenly go, ''whoa, hold a second, we should be getting the money for these sales''?

Of course, you know the answer to that question. But the phone companies are likely to want it both ways, at their convenience. Dig it: Cingular is using Tommy TuTone's song Jenny (867-5309) in their advertisements which tout number portability.