Re: [ga] OECD vs ICANN, re: WHOIS accuracy

[Karl Auerbach <karl@cavebear.com>]

On Sat, 6 Jul 2002, George Kirikos wrote:

> Hopefully the WHOIS taskforce is watching. I agree with the OECD's
> position, that WHOIS accuracy affects the stability of the internet.

I have never heard anyone make a credible claim that accuracy of "whois" 
for DNS has any affect whatsoever on the *technical* stability of the 
Internet.  Whois claims generally come from trademark owners who whine 
about how expensive it is to use legal processes; there might be merit in 
that, but it is not an issue affecting the technical stability of the net.

On the other hand, the accuracy of the "whois" for IP address allocations
is important when tracking down problems and attacks.

All the brouhaha about "whois" is focused on the former kind of whois and
not on the latter.

If you are concerned about tracking down spammers and those who run 
accused services, such as web sites accused of engaging in bad behaviour, 
you are much more likely to reach a responsible person via the IP address 
whois data than the DNS data.

It is possible to establish an anonymous DNS registration service.  And
given the low cost of maintaining such a service, the operator might chose
not to recover costs directly from the registrants.

Such a system would not endanger the internet one whit, although it might 
tick off trademark owners who would then have to resort to actual legal 
procedures with things like due process and fair procedures.

		--karl--


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