[comments-whois] Re: [ga] Text Posting of Michael Palage's Comments on Whois Task Force

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>]

Karl, Michael and all assembly members,

  I too have thus far found much of what Michael addressed in his
comments
on the Whios Task force interesting.  I know that our members are
going over his comments as I respond here.

  I like you Karl will likely address Michaels comments in segments
also.

  Your comments to the Whois Task Force Karl were for the most part
I felt spot on with one exception.  I did not agree, and still don't,
that
only a few stakeholders/users are interested in a public Whois Database.

  My central issue with the Whois Task Force is two fold.  First being
that the whole Task force process is poor and has done little
to address the issues that have been voluminously discussed
here in the DNSO GA.  Second, related to the first, is that
the central and most important issue with Whios is that of
the private and personal information that it seems ICANN
through it's IPC and BC constituencies wish to be required
to be listed is offensive, dangerous as to identity theft and
stalking, not to mention unnecessarily irritating regarding
Spam.  Hence it seems that the process lead to a glossing
over this central and most important issue mainly because the
BC and the IPC do not wish to be thwarted in this area
and therefore force down the throats of the stakeholders/users
a very tiny minority view and make it into policy.

  Therefore I believe that this Whois Task Force was poorly
lead, and as such conducted itself irresponsibly.  Hence
my own conclusion is that any of it's report conclusions
are thus at the very least questionable...

Karl Auerbach wrote:

> On Wed, 23 Oct 2002, Michael D. Palage wrote:
>
> I am slowly digesting your comments, which are, as usual, interesting and
> enlightening.
>
> Right now I only want to deal with one point:
>
> > ·     Some of the Whois Task Force's recommendations explicitly rely on changes
> > to the ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). Per Louis Touton's
> > note of October 20, 2002, ICANN lacks the contractual authority to
> > unilaterally renegotiate this or other agreements.
>
> Let's not forget the value of comity.
>
> ICANN had no way of forcing Verisign/NSI into the major amendment of their
> contract with ICANN, but with the carrot that ICANN offered, the perpetual
> control of .com, Verisign was happy to be induced.
>
> What I'm saying is that perhaps there is no unilateral power, but there is
> value in future comfortable relations.
>
> At the risk of violating ICANN's policy of having comments in the form of
> messages tossed over a wall and disappearing from view, please pardon me
> if I take this opportunity to post my own comment on the report:
>
> >From karl@CaveBear.com Tue Oct 22 22:58:10 2002
> Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 14:48:55 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Karl Auerbach <karl@CaveBear.com>
> To: comments-whois@dnso.org
> Subject: Comment on Oct. 14 Interim report
>
> I see nothing in this interim report that answers the primary question why
> personally identifiable information must be published to the public at
> all.
>
> In other words, the report fails to answer what I believe must be the
> first question: Why is "whois" needed, and by whom?
>
> It is my sense that there is little public value in the existance of a
> publicly available "whois" database.
>
> There are, of course, small groups who find such a database useful and
> perhaps even valuable - groups such as marketeers (spammers) and trademark
> people who seek to redress perceived violations of their rights without
> resorting to the processes that nations have established for that purpose
> (i.e. the legal system.)
>
> However, the report fails to indicate that the needs of those groups is of
> sufficient weight to justify what amounts to a wholesale violation of
> privacy principles that amounts to nothing less than an anti-privacy tax
> on anyone who wishes to become visible on the internet through the
> mechanism of acquiring a domain name.
>
> The report fails to consider privacy protection mechanisms such as the
> following:
>
>   - Requirements that the data subjects (i.e. the people named in whois
>     records) have free and effective means to maintain the data.
>
>   - Requirements that those who examine the records must first identify
>     themselves, offer proof of that identity, and indicate working means
>     of contact, in particular a valid e-mail address.
>
>      + To ensure that the contact of the person making the inquiry is
>        valid, the response to the query should be returned by e-mail
>        rather than being made online.
>
>     + Special arrangements might be established for those in operational
>       roles (such as people in ISP network operating centers) to have
>       pre-arranged access credentials.
>
>   - That the time, date, and identity of every inquiry be recorded and
>     made available to the data subjects.
>
>   - Requirements that the registries and registrars make no use of the
>     information for any purpose except that for which it was gathered, the
>     maintainence of the registrant's domain name (including the issuance
>     of billing and status statements.)
>
>   - Requirements that registries and registrars take concrete steps ensure
>     that this data is protected by adequate and appropriate security
>     measures.
>
>                 --karl--
>
>
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Regards,
--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup - (Over 127k members/stakeholders strong!)
CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng/SR. Java/CORBA Development Eng.
Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
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