Re: Re[2]: [ga] OECD vs ICANN, re: WHOIS accuracy

[George Kirikos <gkirikos@yahoo.com>]

Hi Allan,

--- Allan Liska <allan@allan.org> wrote:
> I would like to suggest an alternative to the legal contact though.
> If the goal is to reach someone responsible for the domain, why not
> just use the technical contact field?  It should be trivial for
> registrars to suppress Billing and Administrative contacts, and only
> display the technical contact.  The technical contact would be the
> ISP, Hosting provider, or someone within the company who can answer
> questions and deal with problems authoritatively.  The technical
> contact would not be allowed to release any contact information about
> a domain without the consent of the domain owner, or a warrant of
> some
> sort.

That would be a reasonable compromise also. It recognizes that privacy
isn't an "absolute" right. There are benefits and costs to it, as I've
elaborated on before (e.g.
http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga/Arc10/msg00399.html ).

One thing that should be incorporated is the notion of a "Safe Harbor",
similar to, but extending the DMCA provisions, see:

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/512.html

This would go beyond simply copyright infringement, though, and
encompass all illegal activities (civil and criminal) associated with a
domain, i.e. for which the registrant (if not able to be identified)
would have been liable.

Thus, if the technical contact (or the "legal contact", in the
alternative) doesn't do the "right things", they are held responsible
for the improper behaviour. Most upstanding members of the community do
the right things when confronted with abuse, and those safe harbor
provisions would limit their liability. For those who harbour abusers,
though, the responsibility and risk of doing the wrong things should be
made abundantly clear.

Thus, an abusive or criminal registrant who seeks absolute anonymity
can't merely shift the costs to their victims, or to society at large.
If their proxy/agent/legal contact is rational, they would charge a
high price to support such abusers, if they continue to expose them to
liability.

The non-abusive registrant who seeks greater privacy can do so at low
or even zero cost, via a proxy, since their technical/legal contact
doesn't face any risk from bad behaviour from, say, Karl's daughter, a
rape crisis center, or other folks who want more privacy.

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
http://www.kirikos.com/


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