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[nc-whois] q20/Gem collection; questionnaires 751-1500

To: nc-whois@dnso.org
Subject: [nc-whois] q20/Gem collection; questionnaires 751-1500
From: Thomas Roessler <roessler@does-not-exist.org>
Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2002 14:08:09 +0200
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Please find attached a collection of gems derived from the answers  
to question 20 on questionnaires 751-1500.  The submissions are  
ordered by the chapter for which they may be relevant; accordingly,  
some of them are duplicates.  For an example of what an evaluation 
of the "gems" for your particular chapter could look like, please 
see my previous message.

-- 
Thomas Roessler                        <roessler@does-not-exist.org>

User Expectation and Experience

Submission #: 758 (individual); Relevance: AC

20a+b. e-mail addresses should not be exposed without my consent to prevent spammers from using it for marketing.20c. The Whois information must be valid.
20d. Minors less than 13 years old must not be allowed to register a domain name.
20e. DNS information must remain available.
20f. Expiration date must be available and valid.
20g. Whois information must not be copyrighted.
20h. The Whois service should be fast, free, easy and with no frills.

Submission #: 783 (individual); Relevance: ABC

20a) The most important is that a registrant's physical address not be necessarily obtainable over the web (i.e., 3rd party addresses are important). 20b) Whois should not become an address farm for spam or junk mail.
20c) Organizations which register under a gTLD, and thus operate internationally, should be held to the highest standards possible. Failure to do so harms the entire Internet, whereas failure within a ccTLD harms primarily that country.
20d) See 20c.
20e) Providing technical contact information.
20f) Allowing open and free access to the information.
20g) That trademark holders should be able to requisition only the bare minimum number of domain names necessary to prevent consumer confusion. This not only protects freedom of speech/expression/parody, but it also prevents the holders from needing large numbers of domain names in order to protect their trademark.

Submission #: 790 (non-commercial); Relevance: AC

Registrants should have an option for an "unlisted" whois entry, which would include the domain name, expiration date, name server info, and postal mail address for the contact, but not include phone number or email address.

Submission #: 805 (other Attorney for trademark holders); Relevance: AB

20g. I. The biggest problem with respect to intellectual property rights is that there is no way to stop cybersquatters from hiding their domain name registrations through the use of fake or generic WHOIS data. For example, many cybersquatters have now begun to list themselves only as "domainname.com" or "owner". This greatly increases the costs for small-businesses (and cost-adverse larger businesses) to enforce their trademark rights. UDRP disputes take longer or are impossible to fully investigate, and suing an out-of-state registrar in an in rem proceeding is out of the question for many smaller clients.
II. The second biggest problem is the lack of in inexpensive WHOIS search facility that allows one to search for all domains owned by a single entity. This information ought to be free, and NSI's $200 "Dig for Domains" Program is a shameless attempt to extract money from trademark holders.
II. On a larger level, a third problem is that from a new Internet business development standpoint, Domains are too inexpensive to register right now. The breaking of the NSI monopoly and the subsequent lowering of the costs for persons to register new internet domain names appears to actually have raised the costs for new bona fide businesses to get started on the Internet.
In the old days, it cost $35+/year to register a domain. Now, warehousers do it in bulk for $12.88 per year. The perverse effect is to the encourage speculators to warehouse every single word / combination of words / misspellings, etc in every European language in existence. This actually raises the cost of new businesses, who instead of paying $35/year to NSI for a new name, must now negotiate with some speculator and spend $1000+, to some damn warehouser, who thinks he is a legitimate business person. Increasing the cost for a domain to say, $500 per year (give $450 of it to charity) would dramatically decrease domain name speculation, and would free-up multitudes of domain names for potential use by smaller businesses.

Submission #: 810 (other Both private and in businneses I co-founded); Relevance: AC

Would be nice if e-mail field was replaced with a central contact form so spammers can't collect addresses from Whois.

Submission #: 816 (commercial); Relevance: A

Question 9 is designed to give an answer allowing the compilation of a database for sale. At no point could anyone say that they were prepared to give a phone no. but not their home address.
At no point could someone say that they felt information was unnecessary. What is "valueless" supposed to mean? "Essential", "desirable", "undesirable" should be the options.
But this is grade school stuff.

Submission #: 839 (isp); Relevance: AC

20a) E-Mail addresses should never be provided in bulk form.20c) Law enforcement officials I have worked with in the past consider ICANN and the Internic to be co-conspirators with the bulk of the world's Internet Scam artists. 20g) Intellectual property rights? On a domain name? In the real world, this is considered a red herring.

Submission #: 877 (commercial); Relevance: A

The data returned from a whois is expected to be accurate, consise, complete and up-to-date. It is of utmost importance that a whois provide the searcher a method of contacting the person responsible for the CONTENT and ACTIVITIES of a particular domain. The claims of PRIVACY only apply to the private actions of an individual, not to the public actions. The Internet is most definitely public. When criminals, sleases, and con-artists can hide behind fraudulant names without recourse it affects all the legitimate businesses and individuals that are making the internet the global community that it is becoming. We MUST do whatever it takes to keep the registration process (including whois searches) open and accurate. This cannot be legislated by any government body ("the internet doesn't respect borders")it can only be mandated by the agreement of the Registrars.

Submission #: 887 (non-commercial); Relevance: AC

I wouldn't mind if a court order or written request were required to accesspersonal (not corporate or technical) contact information from the WHOIS database.
I'm not pleased that my name and home address are currently on display to people requesting WHOIS information for any purpose at all.
I'm not pleased that Registrars are allowed to sell my name and home address to a third party without any choice on my part.

Submission #: 932 (individual); Relevance: ABC

a) I have experienced harassment directly as a result of unethical individuals being able to look up my domain registration details and determine my postal address and telephone number. I am an unlisted number in my city but unless I register domains in a false name this safety precaution is nullified by having my phone number freely available to "just anybody". b) That a registrant's details are not abused, eg not redistributed without their permission.
c) Don't know.
d) In my opinion nobody under the age of 18 should be allowed to have online a domain registered in their name. It's too easy for their personal information to be abused by unscrupulous parties. This would be hard to enforce (no registrar that I'm aware of asks for date-of-birth of the registrant) so I'm also of the opinion that nobody under the age of 18 should be allowed to register a domain in the first place.
e) Not sure (insufficient knowledge).
f) Business and official bodies must have a means of determining whether any breach of copyright, intellectual property or other registered trademark or mark has occurred if another party has knowingly or unknowingly registered a domain name to which they do not have a strong legal right. An individual might unwittingly register a domain name which breaches a copyright and the copyright holder needs some way of contacting that person so a resolution can be negotiated.
g) As above, and in that if IP rights are breached in the content of a website the lawful owner of the intellectual property must have a means of tracing the source, whether it's via an ISP or a privately-held domain.
h) The privacy of the individual, as above.

Submission #: 939 (registrar-registry); Relevance: ABC

20a. I am concerned about the detailed personal information available to people with potentially malicious intentions. There are valid reasons for the data to be accessible in WHOIS, but I do not feel that the more personal information (such as address and phone number) should be easily available, and it should certainly not be searchable! Perhaps the sensative data should only be accessible after a WHOIS user files a request, and the registrant could have the ability to see who has requested the information. I have personally altered my WHOIS records, filling them instead with incorrect data. I have done this in response to a specific incident where a malicious user was trying to gain intimiate information about me. I don't imagine my experience was an isolated incident.

Submission #: 964 (commercial); Relevance: AC

As an internet user, I am sensitive to the issues of privacy while surfing the internet. I do not believe that the names & destinations of internet users should be publicly available, for resale or purposes of demographic studies without the consent of the individual user. I do believe, however, that the names and contact information for domain name registrants should be publicly available. As a user of the internet, I believe I have a right to know who's domain I am entering. I believe I have a right to know who may be infringing on my intellectual property rights.
Especially in view of the fact that 70% of domain name registrations are held by businesses for commercial purposes, I make the following analogy:
As a shopper, I do not disclose personal information about myself when I enter an establishments. Requests for my name & address at a cash register are denied.
As a proprietor, I am happy to disclose who I am, what I do, what services I offer and what remedies are available to my consumers when they enter my establishment, and I do believe that said consumer has a right to be provided with that information.
A domain name registrant is, whether or not their registration is for commerical purposes, a proprietor. Whether it is a good or service they are purveying, or simply information, they are a proprietor and by creating a website, they are in effect creating a "public place." Those who enter a public place are certainly entitled to know who's domain they are entering.

Submission #: 978 (commercial); Relevance: ABC

The Whois databases are the modern equivilant of vehicle registration and driver licence databases. From a law enforcement/information security perspective, they are usually the only means to assist in identifing sources of malicious internet traffic. They should be totally managed by government.

Submission #: 997 (commercial); Relevance: A

The whois database should exist primarily to ensure accountability of the domain registrant. By preventing anonymity, the whois database supplies a degree of restraint on the owner. If one cannot slip away invisibly, one is less likely to do something that requires slipping away invisibly after having done it.

Submission #: 1026 (commercial); Relevance: A

Make it searchable by _any_ criteria! If you can't handle it, hire Google! Otherwise, what in heaven's name am I paying you for?

Submission #: 1055 (non-commercial); Relevance: AC

20a. When it comes to domain name registrations, there should be NO privacy issues. If you don't want people to know who you are and how to contact you, don't set up a domain!!
20b. The most important consumer protection interest is the availability of full, complete, identification of domain owners and contact information which does NOT refer back solely to SLD.

20c. See 20b.
20d. See 20b.
20e. ?
20f. See 20b.
20g. See 20b.

20h. If rules are made which everyone agrees to, and full information is required for registration so it can also be included in WHOIS database, it's not the data base but how it is presented which could then use a change: Information visible/accessible to the general public on the new rules for WHOIS, and links to contacts for reporting or ??? In addition, is there a way the WHOIS database could be protected from BOTS [besides requiring that it be maintained on a UNIX or LINUX server at all times, and NO MicroSoft servers allowed because they are too flawed & too easy to hack]?

Submission #: 1062 (other law firm-Intellectual Property Dept.); Relevance: A

It is very important that the Whois query "expiration" field is updated immediately if a person re-registers the domain name. The only field that seems to update is the "last updated" field and the old expiration date stay inaccurate.

Submission #: 1086 (registrar-registry); Relevance: AC

Let me say this: The registration of anyname.com represents a small ownership of ultimately public property. It is the beautiful and uniquely implemented process, that allows an individual to own this space, by paying a registration fee.
However, since this is a public conveyance, the ownership is a matter of public record. That getting a bunch of spam mail is inconvenient is part of the deal. Owning property and business are matters of public record. This is a business franchise. It must always be clearly thought of in this way.
ADDITIONALLY, the price for registration should be raised to at least $200US per name. This would fund additional services and act as a means to CONSERVE that precious resource that is the domain name. The .com is a commercial public conveyance and while it can be owned, transfered, negotiated, and considered an asset, it must be managed wisely. While I accept the domain wildcatters as GOOD for business, I bemoan the inactivity of the vast majority of these names. Therefore we need to raise the bar a bit, but without impeding access or materially changing the nature of the current market.

Submission #: 1112 (individual); Relevance: AC

a: Privacy: Requirements that the data not be used for mass mailings have not stopped the data from being used for mass mailings. b: When data is fraudulent (nameservers, contacts, etc.) the data provides no "consumer protection" with regards to abuses committed by registrants.
c: When data is fraudulent, it is useless for law enforcement.
d: When data is fake, it is useless in finding those who abuse the net and its use by minors.
e: When nameservers are fraudulent, the registrar knows about it and leaves the data -also in the 'net's root servers- permitting the registrant to "hijack" others' nameservers -or other errors (intentional or not) lead to errors/abuses of third party resources, it is important for action to be taken.
f: The ability of registrars to offer extra services is important ... with restrictions. Allowing them to offer the "service" of inserting known fraudulent data in the 'net's root nameservers; accepting fraudulent contact information, etc. is not what I would consider proper freedom for a registrar to compete in the marketplace. Allowing registrars to horde what they consider good domain names is also not what I would consider proper.
g: With the new TLDs coming, I think there will be a problem with, for example, APPLE claiming all the "personal" "*apple*" domain names and bringing suit against those who want to talk about the current apple crop or showing a personal interest in "apples". I think a policy protecting private interest in words and topics (as opposed to giving trademark holders blanket rights even in the personal sphere) should be impleneted.
h: Accuracy. It is useless if inaccurate.

Submission #: 1138 (individual); Relevance: AC

20 a. information cannot be sold to third parties and cannot be used for marketing purposes. Registrants should not be able to hide their identities _at all_! 20 b. see 20 a.

Submission #: 1143 (commercial); Relevance: AC

The access to the names of the persons who are behind web sites and their content is essential public information since this is a public venue. Law enforcement should have unlimited access as should the public to the names of the individuals who are behind the URL's. This information must be kept completely public. Privacy here would without a doubt bring about abuse. Competitors and abuses should not be allowed to hide behind some third party. The is no GOOD reason for someone to want to keep their involvement in a web site secret. Keeping the information public keeps the accountability which is absolutely necessary. The people holding this information is a public trust and they absolutely SHOULD NOT be allowed to sell the names and addresses of these people. They do not have the right to sell the information. If someone takes the time to go through the records and pick up our mailing address, etc. from who is I guess I have to put up with the junk mail, but I do not have to put up with the flood of mail and other annoyances that result from this information being provided for a fee. It is not "their" information to sell.

Submission #: 1192 (other Law firm.); Relevance: A

The most inportant IP interest is in preventing domain name ursurpation by parties without legitimate claims to the domain name or a trademark which is part of it. It is esential to be able to have a WHOIS database which can reveal multiple "grabbing" of the trademarks of others in order to demonstrate "bad faith". The UDRP should be amended to make the key standard: use "or" registration in bad faith.

Submission #: 1216 (other a, b and d); Relevance: AC

a. Registrant name and physical contact address, telephone number, fax number and email address. These details should not be disclosed in any way that gives liberal and public access to real persons, families and politically sensitive orgaizations.b. Enforcement of regulations that prohibit the mining of databases to generate leads for unsolicited mail. Current practices, involving denial of service between competing Registrars fly in the face of consumer protection, for which there is no representation in the DNSO. The time it takes to deal with spam costs money and is not a trivial matter from the consumer perspective. c. This is a non issue. Criminal investigation that requires direct contact with the Registrant, does not rely on a public database to gain access to essential contact information that would, in any event, be held by the Registrar. Tech contacts can be used as a first port of call for all legal matters, including IP interests. d. Physical threats to the child. An individual Registrant's details should not be disclosed at ANY age. e. Denial of Service Attack. The very nature of a DOS prohibits a system of verifiable access by network administrators to the Whois database, but essential contact details must be available through tech contacts. f. BulkWhois. It should be banned. This would allow Registrars to protect their customer base from data mining by competitors. Economically, the Registries-Registrars already have a cash cow from annual DN renewals. Whoisbulk is pure greed. g. TM laws provide adequate protection for IP interests. The fact that a TM holder owns a particular IP interest does not mean that entity also should have free and easy access to every person in the world who has ever registered a 2TLD, and at such a high cost to personal privacy. IP interests do not override personal protection. The former is not life-threatening, the latter may well be a matter of life and death, for individuals, families and politically sensitive organizations. h. There has been no consideration given in this survey to the national privacy laws of other nations. In keeping with its mandate to represent all affected stakeholders, ICANN should not only respect the laws of California and the USA, but also the laws of other nations when considering policy decisions. The Whois database currently defies the EU laws and disenfranchises the peoples of the 15 nations that make up European Union. ICANN must not disregard that fact, or attempt to place itself above the laws of the people it purports to represent. Thank you for your time.

Submission #: 1265 (individual); Relevance: AC

I would like to start a website for political commentary, but can't because I fear restricted employment opportunities and threats because of WHOIS.

Submission #: 1290 (individual); Relevance: AC

Detailed information should be available on a peruse basis. Bulk sale of the information should not be permitted.
Considering all the considerations listed above, it is painfully obvious that free availability of this information must be available. The privacy provisions dictate that bulk sale and use of the data must be eliminated or mitigated wherever possible.

Submission #: 1291 (non-commercial); Relevance: AC

We must not allow anonymity and data protection to facilitate network abuseto go untracked and unsullied.

Submission #: 1329 (commercial); Relevance: A

Comment to 20g: A person or organization holding intellectual property rights in a form of domain name registered by another Internet user should be permitted to rely on the WhoIs information much like police organizations rely on the respective departments of motor vehicles when trying to locate owners of autos and other vehicles.When domain name registration processes allow a potential registrant to submit inaccurate registrant information and still secure a domain name registration, protection of intellectual property rights becomes greatly compromised.

Submission #: 1365 (individual); Relevance: AC

It is an essential privacy concerne that individuals should have the option to be anonomous. It is also essential that individuals have equal opportuenty for free speech and expression, without having to sacrifice their rigt to anonomiyt. Consumer Protection should be ensured by the listing of business contact information on the web site proper. It should not be tied to the registration of a domain name and required Whois information. Fraudulent companies, would be able to list incorrect information also on the Whois database, if they so whish.
For law enforcement purposes the Whois is as valuable as the telephone directory. The law enforcement agencies have authority to contact the registrars and registries directly under criminal investigations. A Whois service does not change that fact.

Submission #: 1433 (individual); Relevance: ACD

Q. 9. I: Publication of e-mail address, phone and fax number of the admin-c is not desirable. Publication of the postal address is not necessary (opt-out option). General comments: Widespread publication of personal data (such as in the Whois database) may lead to a variety of side uses, some of them beneficial, some not. If a publicly accessible database is (partly) restricted because of privacy concerns, some of the side uses may be restricted too. However, these side uses cannot justify negligent treatment of privacy issues.
If the Whois database contains data which is superfluous for the technical operation of the Internet, this data should be suppressed. It is not ICANN's responsibility to request the publication of data which is not needed to guarantee the stability of the Internet. The com/net/org Whois currently publishes personal data which is not published in the Whois for the .de ccTLD. If the data is obviously not needed for one of the largest ccTLDs in the world, there should be no need for it in a gTLD either.
Many domain name holders nowadays are not technical experts running Web and e-mail services from their own server connected to the Internet. Instead, they are customers of Web hosting companies running the servers for them and can consequently not help resolving technical issues such as tracing the source of DoS attacks. Nonetheless, their personal data is published by default. It is therefore comprehensible that some domain name holders use wrong phone or fax numbers to prevent misuse of their personal data; requiring superfluous data raises the probability for inaccurate data.
Using third party contact details in lieu of personal data is more complicated and more expensive for the registrant, if he is aware of the publication of his personal data at all: The registrant has to enter into two contracts, as major domain registrars are not offering any such service.
The .de ccTLD registry DeNIC has set up its Whois service in a two-level system which might be interesting for other Whois services, too: On the first Web page, the registrant is only identified with a handle. The registrant's personal data (but not his phone or fax number) is displayed only after clicking on a button on the first Web page. A built-in delay may also be used to prevent predatory use of personal Whois data.
The search capabilities of the Whois database should not be extended unless a technical need for the extension can be proven.

Submission #: 1447 (individual); Relevance: AC

For profit commerical users must reveal themselves completely (even when they use domain names for non-profit organizations - lobbiying) and make themselves easily accessible.Mid-size and large corporations should bear a larger percentage of the cost. Individual rpivacy should be protected. (Nothing more than a name and P.O. box ) this preserves law enforements ability to locate in the case of criminal activity

Submission #: 1475 (individual); Relevance: A

Need a clearer line between company use of a domain and individual use of a domain. Company domains should have full information disclosure, either through WHOIS ir some other systems. Individual's domains don't need this. I also don't like question 9 - there should be something below 'valuless' - 'considered harmful'.

Submission #: 1494 (individual); Relevance: A

20a. Protection of the private user's data20b. Allowing consumers to choose where their personal data is used.
20c. 'real' address information during criminal investigations.
20d. Not allowing access to any data on minors
20e. Public availability to register with reasonable cost.
20f. Maintaining operations
20g. Treat intellectual property investigations similar to criminal ones. Formal legal challenge should be raised before allowing access to information for these purposes (would you like someone peeping your home after looking up your address in the phone book? Even telcos allow phone numbers w/o addresses)

Uniformity and Centralization

Submission #: 783 (individual); Relevance: ABC

Submission #: 787 (individual); Relevance: B

In my opinion:* Every TLD should be required to run a WHOIS server, using a standard protocol and data format. * The names/addresses of these servers should be available from a central location, preferably in such a way that they can be retrieved by automated tools; e.g. by being stored in the DNS record for the TLD.

Submission #: 805 (other Attorney for trademark holders); Relevance: AB

Submission #: 932 (individual); Relevance: ABC

Submission #: 939 (registrar-registry); Relevance: ABC

Submission #: 978 (commercial); Relevance: ABC

Submission #: 1176 (commercial); Relevance: B

If there was a central database accessed for whois requests it could record the identity of the person making the request so that if they used the information for an unauthorised reason it would be possible to identify them and block their ongoing access.

Marketing and Bulk Access

Submission #: 758 (individual); Relevance: AC

Submission #: 776 (isp); Relevance: C

Verisign is an abusive monopoly that is well past its sell by date. Time and time again it has abused the trust we gave it (Internic as was), selling our database to spammers is the last straw.Fix the rules and make sure that unethical marketers and all others that seek to abuse the Internet are shut out for good.

Submission #: 778 (other Law firm); Relevance: C

It should be and is a public database - there is therefore no privacy issue. IP issues are also issues concerning public/consumer interests. Contracts with minors in my jurisdiction are voidable - as global registries, each should take steps not to contract with minors in the first place.

Submission #: 781 (commercial); Relevance: C

The part that bothers me the most, is that I put genuine information in my registration in good faith, and then must change it in order to prevent spam or junk mail.

Submission #: 783 (individual); Relevance: ABC

Submission #: 789 (isp); Relevance: C

20b Anybody using the whois database for marketing of any type should be liable to civil fines of $10,000 US for each offense.

Submission #: 790 (non-commercial); Relevance: AC

Submission #: 807 (individual); Relevance: C

20a: make it a federal offense for misuse of WHOIS information. 20b: make it a federal offense for misuse of WHOIS information.
20c: if misuse of WHOIS information is suspected, allow registrants to request how their public information has been used. If misuse is determined, have the cases handled by the U.S. Judicial System, by making misuse of WHOIS information a federal offense.
20d: see my answer to 20c
20e: if there are problems with the operation of certain websites, technical contacts are useful in reporting the problems. 20f: finding out who has which domains for purposes of trademark infringement, allowing for "reasonable" (open to interpretation, subject to appraisal) unsolicited offers for domains
20g: I have no interest in protecting intellectual property with the exception of patents. Copyrights are far too difficult to police, so they should be outside the bounds of ICANN's responsibilities
20h: I think we've covered them all. Thank you.

Submission #: 810 (other Both private and in businneses I co-founded); Relevance: AC

Would be nice if e-mail field was replaced with a central contact form so spammers can't collect addresses from Whois.

Submission #: 828 (commercial); Relevance: C

ICANN should take into account that what is considered basic, requiredamount of privacy varies very much around the world. While in the US sale of information for marketing purposes is dictated by commercial viewpoints, in many places in Europe and rest of the world it is treated as a violation.
While WHOIS database is definitely valuable tool for tracking down contact persons for IP addresses and domain names, it should be only used for these purposes. There exist enough marketing databases already, WHOIS should not be one of them.

Submission #: 839 (isp); Relevance: AC

Submission #: 850 (individual); Relevance: C

I believe that the domain registration information should be readily availablepublic information, excluding the personal addresses and phone number of private domain name owners. There should be a method of contacting a domain owner, but perhaps thru their hosting company would be best - providing them a level of anonymity while making their domain ownership public knowledge.
This information should be centrally located and all the IP addresses assigned to a particular domain/entity should be readily identifiable as well. If you search on an IP address you should be able to find that it is owned by ISP "X" in city "Y", for example. Random spamming, hacking, cracking, etc., could be greatly reduced if the ownership of IP addresses could be more easily discovered.
I think accountability on the internet is very important, but must be balanced with the need for individual protections. However, you cannot (at least in the US) anonymously own a car or real estate, or a bank account. Why should a greater level of privacy be accorded to the ownership of an internet domain name or IP address??

Submission #: 854 (commercial); Relevance: C

20a. People should be able to apply a shadow identity if they want to avoid spam.20b. Companies should have to supply some kind of 'real' registrant info.
20c. Illegal activity should be traceable.
20d. Minors should not be allowed to register.
20e. Accurate IP and date info.
20f. It is great to use it within the B2B direct marketing world, when we are all in agreement about it and when it is clean and useful data.
20g. Hard to say -- intellectual property rights are so hard to manage right now... (Napster, etc.)
20h. If it is going to be a user-based fee model, then the data BETTER be good, clean, accurate, up-to-date.

Submission #: 855 (individual); Relevance: C

Privacy is often used as an excuse to develop procedures that allow misrepresentation to consumers. Protection of consumers is more important than protection of registrants in the database.

Submission #: 865 (commercial); Relevance: C

Since the publisher of content is often different from the domain name holder,I see no intellectual-property reasons for providing information about domain name holders. While I do not personally engage in anonymous activity on the Internet, I support the right to anonymity there and in other areas of life.

Submission #: 887 (non-commercial); Relevance: AC

Submission #: 925 (commercial); Relevance: C

20a. Allowance and tolerance for bogus whois data aids an individual who might wish to voice his true thought effectively w/o regard to domicile and local law thereby affording avenues toward freedoms of speach unprecidented on a global scale.
20b. Consumers need easy means to establish trust online, else many commercial dreams will fail for want of same.

20c. electronic terrorism and other forms of organized political, religeous, commercial, and noncommercial mischief.

20d. What is a minor in this context? With an increasing subset of the global hightech knowlege base, resource, and mischief under the contol of minors, we must ballance the desire to protect our minors from predation with the need to protect the adult population and commerce.

20e. network security and user safety

20f.

20g.

20h. an accurate whois database is essecial for the purpose of dns taxation

Submission #: 932 (individual); Relevance: ABC

Submission #: 939 (registrar-registry); Relevance: ABC

Submission #: 964 (commercial); Relevance: AC

Submission #: 978 (commercial); Relevance: ABC

Submission #: 1004 (individual); Relevance: C

20a. What, in your view, is the most important personal privacy interest applicable to the Whois database? The abuse of some people in retrieving WHOIS physical contact information (such as the mailing address/phone number) of administrative contacts and technical contacts, and then send harrassing letters/and or phone calls.
Mailing addresses and phone numbers should NOT be provided by WHOIS. Only email addresses shouldbe provided by WHOIS.

Submission #: 1043 (commercial); Relevance: C

For an "open" system like this erring on the side of privacy seems reasonable - up to a point. Processes and procedures should be put in place to allow escalation in the event of illegal criminal or civil use, or technical issues relating to a domain which would allow privacy protections to be progressively voided in a minimal yet reasonable way.

Submission #: 1055 (non-commercial); Relevance: AC

Submission #: 1060 (other representative of users); Relevance: C

contact information for domain name owners should be available to the public under all circumstances

Submission #: 1080 (commercial); Relevance: C

Though I do not have many domains, I do run a site that services a 150.000 users community. And I simply run it from home. Luckily, among that crowd there is just a handfull of idiots. Yet these people can simply look up my home address and home phone number. There is even a service site, that provides a map with a target dish on my address! I've been threatened and harrassed many times, by assholes that claim access to my site based on "the constitutional rights", "freedom of speech" or the fact "that it is illegal that I block the free internet". Mind you, I pay a shit load of money to keep my server on line.The public part of the whois administration has seriously invaded my privacy. Though I consider myself lucky that no damage (other than psychological) has been done yet, I do consider whois information something that some dumb internet hippies once invented which apparently is worth more than my personal safety. Everybody on the web can happily threaten me anonymously, no provider will give me information, it's the same hippies there that protect users privacy, while I'm literally being setup as a target on an online map. Just one click away from being molested or worse. You can't have it both ways. Either nobody gets on line anonymously, or we all do. The way it is now, all those that contribute to the web offering content (which is much more important than stupid domain name trading) are sitting ducks. The whois database is totally irresposible and should be shut down.

Submission #: 1086 (registrar-registry); Relevance: AC

Submission #: 1103 (commercial); Relevance: C

The whois data should be public information and it should not have any restrictions.

Submission #: 1109 (commercial); Relevance: C

All domain registration data should be publicin the same vein that all real property titles are registered and publically available at your county courthouse.
If the availability to hide your registration data is available, spammers and other network abuses will use this to hide their identity. This is not acceptable.

Submission #: 1112 (individual); Relevance: AC

Submission #: 1138 (individual); Relevance: AC

20 a. information cannot be sold to third parties and cannot be used for marketing purposes. Registrants should not be able to hide their identities _at all_! 20 b. see 20 a.

Submission #: 1143 (commercial); Relevance: AC

Submission #: 1216 (other a, b and d); Relevance: AC

Submission #: 1249 (individual); Relevance: C

I have seen many personal website run by children and young adults and their personal address are availible through whois. I also feel that the whois database in its current form causes people who would otherwise register a domain name decide not to do it because they don't want their personal information availible to anyone who has access to the internet.

Submission #: 1265 (individual); Relevance: AC

I would like to start a website for political commentary, but can't because I fear restricted employment opportunities and threats because of WHOIS.

Submission #: 1290 (individual); Relevance: AC

Submission #: 1291 (non-commercial); Relevance: AC

We must not allow anonymity and data protection to facilitate network abuseto go untracked and unsullied.

Submission #: 1311 (University Student); Relevance: C

I think the primary personal privacy concern is the compilation and re-distribution of registered users contact information. In a world where marketers have no morals and spam is encouraged in Internet Marketing classes, this is a one way road to disaster.

Submission #: 1365 (individual); Relevance: AC

Submission #: 1433 (individual); Relevance: ACD

Submission #: 1447 (individual); Relevance: AC

Submission #: 1493 (commercial); Relevance: C

20a. Protection from unscrupulous persons.I host a domain for a refugee organistation and I am concerend about the lack of an opt-out for the domain names I set up which would have provided my identification params to 'qualified' persons but not to the general public. Would have been nicel

Third Party Svcs.

Submission #: 863 (isp); Relevance: D

I would not use a third party to act as my agent for domain registration because it would undoubtedly slow down problem resolution. Plus, I don't have a trust relationship with any third party organization like that.

Submission #: 1155 (commercial); Relevance: D

Having an agent register a domain name is an interesting option, but I would be concerned about my personal interest in and ownership of the name. A big problem concerning the internet is money, of course. Most internet activity happens in California, and California is rich. Elsewhere, people can't afford the computers and lines of communication necessary. So in the interests of making computers more people and world-friendly to more depressed economies, this issue of a publicly available database is unsettling. Basically, the only people that can shield themselves from the vices of the public are rich and employed people who can afford various telephone lines and extra mail box addresses. For the regular person, who manages to have only one phone and one address, the idea that having a simple artsy website, say, could attract mass murderers is scary. There should be a way of protecting registants' privacy AND a way of tracking internet criminals. I'm all for an internet police that has access to files without the whole world having access. There should, however, be a mandatory bulletin board that flashes on internet sites if many people have registered complaints against the site or if the site is associated with illegal activity...a kind of Big Brother Better Business Bureau, if you will. It'll make criminals think twice about continuing their activities and warn innocent newcomers.

Submission #: 1433 (individual); Relevance: ACD

Other Gems

Submission #: 799 (commercial); Relevance:

The more restrictive we attempt to make Internet tools and applications, the more we can expect people pulling away from using it. Use of Internet technologies by the masses is still in its infancy. If you don't help infants to crawl before showing them how to walk, they will never find firm footing.

Submission #: 851 (commercial); Relevance:

I feel that the general public lacks a fundamental understanding of the domain registration process, including who is responsible for maintaining the WhoIS database, its accuracy, and other means of accessing it.
ICANN can play a role. I think the U.S. Federal Government should provide funding to help educate the average consumer on ICANN's role, and the role's ISPs and Registrars play in the domain registration process.
Many of these questions posed in this survey assumed a technical knowlege which the average consumer does not possess. Although, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to provide input, and this forum.

Submission #: 867 (commercial); Relevance:

WHY WE HAVE TO WAIT MORE THAN ONE WEEK FOR MODIFY A DOMAIN NAME ISP ????WHY ALL OUR ASK ARE WITHOUT ANSWER ??? YOU'RE THE MOST EXPENSIVE BUT NOT THE COMPANY WHO OFFER THE BEST SERVICE

Submission #: 874 (isp); Relevance:

uh, questions 20a through 20h don't have any input elements. I'm using MSIE 5.0(2022) on a Macintosh. ??

Submission #: 889 (non-commercial); Relevance:

Non-commercial entities should be provided the same protection for domain names as commercial entities. Bulk registration should not be allowed. It is only a gimmick to make money and serves no public purpose.

Submission #: 892 (commercial); Relevance:

The current state of the domain initiative has inexplicably favored big business to the detriment of individual owners. ICANN for whatever reason has chosen to ignore common sense and rationality in dealing with this issue. Businesses do not have any more right to a name than an individual with the same name. Besides, Trade Mark Law in the traditional sense has specific areas where the protection is accorded. Yet many of the UDRP cases tend to ignore many of those principles. The various cases where certain business interests have gone after a registered name under the pretext of protecting their intellectual property rights without due recognition of the rights of individuals will undoubtably create problems in the future. I, for one, am interested in educating myself legally for that purpose. Many of the principals responsible for many of the injustice should be held accountable in a Court of Law. Many of these businesses hijack these names thanks to many of the stooges professing to act in the public interest. Many of them are acting based on what they will gain rather than what's right hence should not go scott free in my opinion. ICANN as an entity has proven itself not worthy or capable of the responbility of administering the affairs the Internet based on their many actions or lack thereof thus far. I am of the opinion that there should be a grass root movement to effect change and that should start with contacting the various elected representatives within the various constituencies. Those that have been thumbing their nose on the right of the general masses as it relates to the Internet and the domain names in particular should be voted out or in the least make it financially costly to retain their seats. May be they will get the message.

Submission #: 898 (individual); Relevance:

I don't feel that privacy should be an issue regarding WhoIs - in fact, the privacy issue is more smoke and mirrors designed to protect the predator against it's prey. It's a lesson in contradiction. If personal privacy is ever to be maintained and respected, then greater strides need to be taken towards punishing the abusers, not in creating an even larger and more impenetrable "Thieves Bazaar". and once those strides are taken, then the most of the other considerations listed above become non-issues.

Submission #: 958 (commercial); Relevance:

20b)A whois database that offers accurate domain name registrant information will inevitably assist consumers who are the victims of all types of online fraud. Due to the fact that control of content on a web site is determined by a domain name registrant, it is crucial that consumers be able to contact a domain name registrant when they become the victim of fraud as a result of their interaction with a particular web site. 20g)Trademark owners use whois on regular basis to learn the identity of cybersquatters: individuals who register and traffic in internet domain names with the bad faith intent to benefit from another’s trademark. Additionally, intellectual property owners use whois in order to determine the domain name registrant of a web site that engages in other illegal activity such as intellectual property piracy. Cybersquatters and pirates typically seek to avoid detection. The contact and ownership data in the whois system is the most reliable method that trademark owners have in determining the identity and location of the cybersquatter and/or pirate, thereby preventing consumer confusion. Additionally, the data from whois is crucial to establish a case under the U.S. Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, the ICANN UDRP, as well as ccTLD dispute resolution policies and other legislation that assists intellectual property owners with respect to cybersquatting and piracy.

Submission #: 965 (other Small web host); Relevance:

This is too long.

Submission #: 967 (other websupport); Relevance:

to many questions - got bored

Submission #: 985 (commercial); Relevance:

Could require WHOIS users to identify themselves so that those who have obtained data can also be identified and traced in cases of abuse

Submission #: 1023 (non-commercial); Relevance:

No web site owner should be able to hide from public scrutiny - EVER.

Submission #: 1209 (commercial); Relevance:

I would like a clear "what happens when a domain expires" set of rules that are clear and enforced. - I lost out last year when a domain expired and the previous owner said we could pick it up when it came free - the previous owner could not be bothered to transfer it. I was checking every few hours (for several months) waiting for it to come free, to find someone else go it.

Submission #: 1274 (commercial); Relevance:

I want my web traffic scripts to be able to track down anonymous visitors by ISP and country. This is only used where "hostname" resolution fails, so I don't need registrant's postal mail/phone number for this. When whois requests need to be forwarded to another authority (eg. whois.aunic.net) this forwarding should be in a machine parsable format.

Submission #: 1339 (other University); Relevance:

I do not fully understand what does the point 5.e above mean. Does "to source unsolicited email" mean " to FIND THE SOURCE of unsolicited email received" or "to GATHER DATA for sending out unsolicited email" ??? I filled out the form assuming the first meaning (find the source of a received email).

Submission #: 1355 (individual); Relevance:

Domain names are essentially businesses even when they are personal. I think the public therefore should be able to see who is running any internet businesses, which is won of the most important benefits of Whois.

Submission #: 1382 (isp); Relevance:

accountability is the answer to all those questions

Submission #: 1446 (commercial); Relevance:

Your form does not allow for situation where you do not know the answer.... such as the registrars policy on 3rd party information access. Too technical as well.. Most people I know would have a hard time answering the questions on this form.

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