Re: [ga-sys] Re: Registrants Charter -- FREEDOMS -- part 1

["William X. Walsh" <william@userfriendly.com>]

Hello babybows.com,

Tuesday, May 15, 2001, 5:40:11 PM, babybows.com wrote:

> William,

> Clearly, privacy is a major issue in the European community, and we need to
> respect the fact that the Internet is a global medium.

Certainly, but that doesn't mean that we have to accommodate whatever
strange laws they want to pass.

Privacy can be had with the current system, as Kent and Roeland both
pointed out.  Postal service boxes and similar services are available
to protect one's address.  Telephone voicemail services are also
cheaply available services, to avoid giving your direct phone number
out if that is a concern.  Provided that the information listed is
ACTUAL and real information for reaching that person, the equivalent
of a listing where they can be reached for any legal purpose, that
meets the burden and needs for this kind of information.

If someone is that concerned about their privacy, then there are other
options available to them, either they do like the above, or they find
another way to get an address for their website or email, or use a
subdomain service.  If their own domain name is something they feel
they need, then they have to accept that they will have to list
contact information.  Just like buying property here in the US, you
CANNOT be exempt from those databases.  It is a matter of public
record, and most states require that the records departments provide
bulk access to those records to private companies.

There is no provision for you to be removed from those public records.

> It should be
> possible to strike a compromise position that would allow for privacy
> concerns and for the concerns of law enforcement, intellectual property and
> commercial interests.

The responsibility for a solution rests with the domain registrant to
protect themselves.

It is NOT our responsibility to coddle them.

> Why must a registrar license out all their bulk WHOIS data to any
> marketing group that can put up $10,000?

Because that is the common practice with public records.  Including
property ownership records.

> Why should the public stand for it?

Because that's the price you pay for owning property or registering a
domain name.

Don't like it?  Oh well.  Don't buy property or register a domain
name.

> Aren't we targeted already to a more-than-sufficient degree by
> commercial marketing units?




> Why should a young single female with a personal website be at risk of being
> stalked by any maniac that can perform a WHOIS lookup?

See above.  She has solutions. If she can't take responsibility for it
herself, then should needs to find another solution herself.

> Should a political
> activist living under a repressive regime be forced to give out the
> information that may result in his imprisonment or cost him his life?

Then he should think twice about registering a domain name, and
instead find another solution.  They exist.

> There are a fair amount of questions that can be asked...

But none of them support exemptions from listings in whois databases.

-- 
Best regards,
William X Walsh
mailto:william@userfriendly.com
Owner, Userfriendly.com
Userfriendly.com Domains
The most advanced domain lookup tool on the net


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