[ga-sys] DNSO Names Council Whois survey

[Joanna Lane <jo-uk@rcn.com>]

Should the GA debate these issues, ballot members, and post a formal
response, or approach the survey only as individuals, or both?
 
Regards,
Joanna 

http://www.icann.org/dnso/whois-survey-en-08jun01.htm

The ICANN Domain Names Supporting Organization (DNSO) is conducting a study
of the Internet domain-name system's Whois system, which provides
information about registrations of domain names. The DNSO invites you to
participate by filling out the following survey and clicking the "SUBMIT
FORM" button at the bottom.


Whois Survey Purpose

   The purpose of this survey is to:

          1. solicit input from as many people as possible concerning the
use of Whois service, and

          2. assess whether changes should be considered to the current
Whois policy adopted by ICANN.

   The questions are designed to focus on the purpose, use, and accuracy of
the Whois service to establish the appropriate balance between competing
interests. The comment period is open NOW until the 31st July 2001.

   Background

   The Whois service comprises registrants' domain name registration
information stored in the databases of either ICANN Accredited Registrars
(the source for .com/.net/.org domain names) or at the registry of the
appropriate country code or other Generic Top Level domain. The Whois is a
publicly searchable resources and are used to determine the identity of
domain name registrants and the technical and administrative contacts
associated with the domain name or Internet Protocol address block (which
identifies the network to which a computer is connected). The Whois search
facility is used by various users for multiple purposes, including:

          1. to identify the availability of a particular name in which
someone is interested
          2. to determine if there are similar names already in use,
          3. to identify and verify online merchants,
          4. to identify online infringers for enforcement of intellectual
property rights,
          5. to source unsolicited email and sites that may be inappropriate
for children, and
          6. to identify contacts in the investigation of illegal activity,
including consumer fraud, child pornography, etc.

   Whois also provides a crucial resource for network administrators who may
need to contact other network system operators in resolving network problems
or to determine the perpetrators of spam or hacking attacks. In its multiple
capacities, the Whois plays a critical role in building user confidence in
the operation of the Internet and Internet activities.

   The Whois database consists of an individual or a company name, and
address, the dates on which the domain was created, when it expires and when
it was last updated. It includes the name of the administrative contact and
its address and technical contact with address, contact numbers and
technical information, such as Name Server details that are used to resolve
a name into an IP address. The IP address identifies the associated computer
connected to the Internet.

   Today, it is estimated that well over 70% of domain names are registered
by businesses or organizations. Names are also are registered by individuals
who are holding names to resell, or possibly use in the future. It is the
disclosure of data about individuals' registrations that has raised privacy
issues.

   Under the ICANN Accreditation Agreement, a registrar or third party can
list its own contact details in lieu of registrants' personal information,
provided that it accepts liability for any harm caused by wrongful use, and
that it promptly discloses the identity of the true holder upon reasonable
evidence of actionable harm. In this way, it remains possible to pursue
allegations of illicit or improper activity. The ICANN accreditation
agreement also requires registrars to adopt reasonable measures to prevent
predatory use of data beyond the stated purposes in the registration
agreement. For example, these include measures to prevent mining of a
database for domain name holders' contact details for use in unrelated
advertising, sales and marketing or for third party resale.

   Since the introduction of competition in .com, Net and .org, the formerly
centralized Whois lookup has been dispersed into the record systems of
approximately 80 ICANN Accredited Registrars.

   This survey seeks to establish your views, please answer all questions
and use the free text area on the Summary page to inform us of any
additional comments you may have.

   Please supply your email address, so we may send you a copy of your
responses and publish them on the Whois public comments selection, to ensure
an open and transparent process.

   Questions

   Type of respondent

   1. Which of the following terms best describes your status as a
respondent to this survey?

          (Please provide, where applicable, an indication of the size of
your organization, either the number of employees or staff, or the number of
members): 

            
                                 Category
                   
Size
                   
(Employees/Members)
          a.
                  Commercial business user
                   
          b.
                  Non-commercial organization user
                   
          c.
                  Governmental organization user
                   
          d.
                  Individual or household user
                   
          e.
                  Domain name registrar and/or registry
                   
          f.
                  Internet access provider or network operator
                   
          g.
                 Other:
                   


   2. Have you registered any domain names?  yes  no

          If "yes":

          a. How many ccTLD domain names have you registered:
          b. How many gTLD domain names have you registered:

          What was the general purpose of your registration:

          a.
                 commercial
          b.
                 governmental
          c.
                 personal
          d.
                 noncommercial organization
          e.
                 other


   3. How often do you use the Whois service on average?

          a.
                  never
          b.
                  occasionally
          c.
                  weekly
          d.
                  once or twice a day
          e.
                  many times a day


   4. Which of the following most accurately describes the use of Whois that
is most important to you or
   your organization:

          a.
                  To determine if a specific domain name is
unregistered/available?
          b.
                  To find out the identity of a person or organization who
is responsible for a domain
             name or web site I have encountered while using the Internet
          c.
                 To support technical operations of ISPs or network
administrators, including tracing
             sources of spam or denial of service attacks
          d.
                 To identify the owner of a domain name for consumer
protection or intellectual
             property protection purposes
          e.
                 To gather names and contact information for marketing
purposes
          f.
                 To support government law enforcement activities (other
than intellectual property)
          g.
                 Other (please briefly describe):
                   


   Use of the Whois

   5. What should the purpose of the Whois service be (place in order 1-7
where 1 is the most important):

          a.
             Rank:      to identify the availability of a particular name in
which someone is interested
          b.
             Rank:      to determine if there are similar names already in
use
          c.
             Rank:      to identify and verify online merchants
          d.
             Rank:      to identify online infringers for enforcement of
intellectual property rights
          e.
             Rank:      to source unsolicited email
          f.
             Rank:      to identify contacts in the investigation of illegal
activity
          g.
             Rank:      other (specify):


   6. Which of the following best describes your attitude towards access to
the data contained in the
   Whois service?

          a.
                   I am most concerned about protecting the privacy of
domain name registrants
          b.
                   I am most concerned about effective identification of who
is behind a specific
             domain for consumer protection or intellectual property
protection purposes
          c.
                   I am most concerned about ensuring that Whois supports
the resolution of
             technical problems on the Internet
          d.
                   No opinion
          e.
                   Other (specify):


   7. Have you ever been harmed or inconvenienced because the Whois data you
received was
   inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date?

          a.    Yes, I have experienced inaccurate data.
          b.    No, the data has been accurate.

          What percentage of the Whois records you relied on proved to be
inaccurate,
          incomplete, or out of date on average:

                 a.   Less than 5 percent
                 b.   5 - 25 percent
                 c.   25 - 50 percent
                 d.   More than 50 percent

                 If appropriate, please describe the harm or inconvenience
caused by the
                 inaccurate data:
                   

                 How do you think an improvement can best be achieved?
                   

   Data elements stored in the Whois

   8. Currently, Whois records in .com, Net, and .org are composed of the
following data elements:

          A. The name of the second-level domain being registered and the
top-level domain it is
          under;
          B. The IP addresses of the primary and secondary name servers for
the registered
          domain;
          C. The host names of the name servers;
          D. The identity of Registrar;
          E. The date of the original registration;
          F. The expiration date of the registration;
          G. The name and postal address of the registrant;
          H. The name, postal address, e-mail address, voice telephone
number, and (where
          available) fax number of the technical contact for the SLD; and
          I. The name, postal address, e-mail address, voice telephone
number, and (where
          available) fax number of the administrative contact for the SLD.

          Would you describe these data elements as

                 a.  Adequate for your purposes
                 b.  Inadequate for your purposes
                 c.  Unnecessary for your purposes

          8.1 If you answered "Inadequate," What other data elements would
you like to see
          included to promote public confidence in Internet activities?

                   

          8.2. If you answered "Unnecessary," What other data elements would
you like to see
          suppressed from public disclosure?

                   

   9. Please indicate which of the data elements listed in A-I above are, in
your view, of valueless,
   essential, or desirable:

          A. The name of the second-level domain being registered and the
top-level domain it is
          under;

                      essential
                      desirable
                      valueless

          B. The IP addresses of the primary and secondary name servers for
the registered
          domain;

                      essential
                      desirable
                      valueless

          C. The domain names of the name servers;

                      essential
                      desirable
                      valueless

          D. The identity of Registrar;

                      essential
                      desirable
                      valueless

          E. The date of the original registration;

                      essential
                      desirable
                      valueless

          F. The expiration date of the registration;

                      essential
                      desirable
                      valueless

          G. The name and postal address of the registrant;

                      essential
                      desirable
                      valueless

          H. The name, postal address, e-mail address, voice telephone
number, and (where
          available) fax number of the technical contact for the SLD; and

                      essential
                      desirable
                      valueless

          I. The name, postal address, e-mail address, voice telephone
number, and (where
          available) fax number of the administrative contact for the SLD.

                      essential
                      desirable
                      valueless

   Searchability

   10. Should the publicly accessible Whois database allow for searches on
data elements other than
   domain name?

                Yes
                No

          If "Yes", please specify from fields AI which you should be usable
as search keys.

                       A   |    B   |    C   |    D   |    E   |    F   |
G   |    H
                   |    I

          Should other enhancements to searchability (e.g., Boolean
searching on character
          strings) be provided?

                Yes
                No

          If "Yes", how should the cost associated with such enhancements be
paid for?

                   

   11. Do you use Whois in cctlds?

                Yes
                No

   12. Do you think that the data elements used in .com, Net, and .org
should be available uniformly in
   country code top-level domains?

                Yes
                No

          Why or why not?

                   

   Uniform data format to Whois

   13. Do you support the concept of uniformity of Whois data format and
services?

                Yes
                No

          What, in your view, is the best way to achieve uniformity both in
format and search
          capability across Whois services?

                   

   Centralized portal access to Whois

   14. Do you support the concept of centralized public access to Whois -
e.g., a "one-stop" point of
   Whois to access information:

                Yes
                No

          (a) Across .com/Net/.org?

                      Yes
                      No

          (b) Across all gTLDs (i.e. including the new TLDs.)?

                      Yes
                      No

          (c) Across all TLDs? (i.e. including country code TLDs)?

                      Yes
                      No

          If appropriate, what, in your view, is the best way to achieve the
level of centralized public
          access that you support?

                   

   15. Who should bear the cost burden of implementing centralized public
access?

            
          a.
                 Those who use the service should pay for it
          b.
                 It should be paid for by ICANN
          c.
                 Registrars should support it as a public service
          d.
                 Should be part of the domain registration fee as it is
today.
          e.
                 Other


   Sale and marketing of customer data

   16. Should registrars be allowed to engage in resale or marketing uses of
the registration contact
   information?

              Yes
              Yes, but only with the express permission of the registrant
(opt-in)
              Yes, but only after the registrant has had the opportunity to
opt-out
              No

   Bulk access /mandatory sale of customer data/ manipulation and adding
value
   to customer data

   The current provisions with regard to the mandatory sale of Whois data,
and uses that can be made of
   the data obtained through bulk access, are contained in the Registrar
Accreditation Agreement at
   sections 3.3.6 and following, Third Party Bulk Access to Data.

   These provide for the mandatory sale of customer data on certain
specified conditions. These conditions are discussed in terms of a contract
between the registrar and a third party seeking access to the data. The data
may not be used for mass unsolicited emailing, but can by inference be used
for mass faxing or mass mailing (3.3.6.3), "other than such third party's
own existing customers". In addition, the "Registrar's access agreement
shall require the third party to agree not to use the data to enable
high-volume automated electronic processes that send queries or data to the
systems of any Registry Operator or ICANN accredited registrar, except as
reasonably necessary to register domain names or modify existing
registrations". (3.3.6.4)

   The agreement says that the registrar "... may enable Registered Name
Holders who are individuals to elect not to have Personal Data concerning
their registrations available for bulk access for marketing purposes based
on Registrar's 'Opt-Out' policy, and if Registrar has such a policy
Registrar shall require the third party to abide by the terms of that
Opt-Out policy; provided, however, that Registrar may not use such data
subject to opt-out for marketing purposes in its own value-added product or
service." (3.3.6.6)

   The text allows the Registrar discretion

          to prohibit, or
          to permit under conditions he chooses,

   the use of the registrants' data

          to condition the subsequent use of the data (3.3.6.5), and
          to have a privacy policy, or not, (3.3.6.6)

   but unless the registrar takes positive steps to have a privacy policy
different from the Registration Agreement, the registrant's personal data is
available as the Agreement prescribes. "Personal data" refers exclusively to
data about natural persons.

   17. Do you think that:

          a. These provisions should be maintained in the gTLD environment?

                      Yes
                      No

          b. These provisions should be extended to apply to other TLDs
(subject to any comments in 12)?

                      Yes
                      No

          c. As a user would you welcome information from your chosen
service provider introducing you to the additional services they may be able
to provide?

                      Yes
                      No

          d. These provisions should be changed?

                      Yes
                      No

                 If so, how?

                   

   Question for registrars, ISPs, and hosting companies

   18. Where non-disclosure of the name and address is requested by the
Domain Registrant, the ICANN Accreditation Agreement allows for a name and
address of a third party to be used where the third party has an agreement
with the Registrant, does your company offer this service to its customers?

                Yes
                No

   Question for the public

   19. To protect your privacy if you were offered the opportunity to use
the name and address of a third party to act as your agent, would you
register domains in the name of the third party rather than your own name.

                Yes
                No

   Other Comments:

   Please consider the following:

          20a. What, in your view, is the most important personal privacy
interest applicable to the Whois database?

          20b. What, in your view, is the most important consumer protection
interest applicable to the Whois database?

          20c. What, in your view, is the most important law enforcement
interest applicable to the Whois database?

          20d. What, in your view, is the most important interest with
respect to protection of minors applicable to the Whois database?

          20e. What, in your view, is the most important network operational
interest applicable to the Whois database?

          20f. What, in your view, is the most important competitive or
economic interest applicable to the Whois database?

          20g. What, in your view, is the most important interest with
respect to intellectual property rights that is applicable?

          20h. What other interests, besides those listed above, should be
considered with regard to the Whois database?

          Free text area for any other comments:

                   

          21a. Your e-mail address so we may send you a copy of your
responses:
                   

          21b. Your name and organization:

                   



   Your comments will be published for public review, not associated with
your identity in item 21. Your e-mail address (item 21a) will be used to
send a copy of your responses back to you, but will not be provided to third
parties without your permission. Your name and organization (item 21b) may
be published as part of a list of responding parties.

    

                                                    

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