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

[Joe Baptista <baptista@dot-god.com>]

On Sun, 7 Jul 2002 eric@hi-tek.com wrote:

> Somebody clue me in here.  I have run all this Whois stuff through
> several
> that are more technically inclined than I, and I just get laughed at.
>
> The only issues involved in whois is privacy versus IP interests and
> spamming.
> Like Joe says "a few years ago".
> All debates in the technical area of Whois are red herrings.
> Individual rights versus corporations is the only issue.

exactly - in non technical terms whois is a protocol to lookup stuff on
names and numbers.  It runs on port 43.

so if you want info on baptista.god - you would issue the command

whois -h whois.dot-god.com baptista.god

so when you issue that command it sends a query to port 43 at
whois.dot-god.com and a daemon answers - takes the information (query)
baptista.god and provides a response.

You can find the RFC on whois here.

ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc954.txt

you'll notice the RFC is mainly designed to provide directory services for
the US military and friends.  Anyway, apart from the military reasons for
a whois to exist at the time the RFC will provide you wit the technical
specs on whois and how the protocol works - it's simple

 To access the NICNAME/WHOIS server:

      Connect to the SRI-NIC service host at TCP service port 43
      (decimal).

      Send a single "command line", ending with <CRLF> (ASCII CR and
      LF).

      Receive information in response to the command line.  The server
      closes its connection as soon as the output is finished.

the purpose behind whois is to report technical problems. And addressing
information is not relevant to technical problems.  email and backup email
addresses in technical contact records are important, a contact number be
it voicemail or direct connect to live technical person is important, and
a fax would be helpful.  And the domain owner should have the right to not
list any of the above - i.e. no email - no phone - no fax.

if they don't care about being notified of a technical problem then it's
their business to not list any contact details.  This is a right one
should have to protect one's privacy.

in fact the .mil whois these days could use a privacy flag itself.  alot
of the information maintained by the .mil whois could be used to further
the work of terrorists.

we live in an insecure world .. in which privacy in my own opinion is
nothing more then a figment of a deranged imagination.  but it is a
fundamental right and in many countries a legislated right so it is
prudent to allow people options.

And i am very pleased to say that the .god registry is one of the few out
there which actually takes their domain owners rights to privacy
seriously.  They can turn on or turn off the email and organization
displays.

In our earlier registration tests the privacy flag on .god domains was
turned off by default when the domain owner registered.  They had to
specifically turn on the privacy setting when registering.  And the
results were clear that the majority in the population preffered privacy.

http://whaler.tallship.net/archives/god.pccf.net/www/admin/stats-2000-06-01/sld003.htm

Unlike ICANN, The dot.GOD Registry listens to it's users.  The privacy
flags on .god and .satan now default to privacy for all.  If a user does
not want privacy - they can turn the flag off.

And thats what this is all about in the end - the right to be listed or
not.  The whois was never intended as a tool to make the job easier on
lawyers.


regards
joe baptista
www.dot-god.com

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