[ga] Summary of Verisign meeting in Washington on WHOIS services

[DannyYounger@cs.com]

This first meeting by VeriSign (one of three scheduled) was designed to allow 
panelists representing Law Enforcement and Intellectual Property interests to 
address their concerns (subsequent sessions will allow for representatives of 
Privacy groups and others to express their views).  A representative for the 
FBI pointed out the need for accurate and timely world-wide information.  The 
head of the Intellectual Property Constituency, Steve Metalitz, required 
searchability across a broad spectrum of data fields.  

Information on this centralized WHOIS is to be found at:  
http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/verisign/registry-agmt-appw-com-16apr01.h

tm

Participants at this meeting noted that neither registrars nor other 
registries were specificly invited to attend, nor were representatives of the 
DNSO nor the NC WHOIS committee.   The lack of participants from IETF and 
other such groups was also noted.  Miriam Sapiro who headed the Verisign 
panel replied that the meeting was sufficiently publicized.  

It was asked (my question), will VeriSign abide by a consensus decision if 
privacy concerns outweigh the interests of the Intellectual property 
constituency.  I did not find the response to be satisfactory.  

This centralized WHOIS database raises many policy issues, especially with 
regard to privacy.  I would hope that the NC chooses to add this topic to 
their agenda and that policy matters can be resolved and honored prior to 
being presented with a "fait accompli" by VeriSign. 

I continue to be troubled by VeriSign side-stepping the DNSO, and would hope 
that they would choose to be more cooperative in the future.

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