Re[2]: [ga] WHOIS policy primer

[Allan Liska <allan@allan.org>]

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Hello Jeff,

Wednesday, August 28, 2002, 12:52:20 AM, you wrote:


>>
>> Examples of times when I have needed to get in touch with a domain
>> owner:
>>
>> 1. Receiving virus infected e-mails from a user of a domain.  Yes, I
>> can /dev/null the e-mails, but I want the account cleaned up -- the
>> ISP is not going to do that, the owner of the domain will.

JW>   Some ISP's do clean these sorts of problems up if you can clearly
JW> show what or from where/whom that potential virus came from.
JW> However it is not up to you to act as the Domain Name Police
JW> for viruses...

Some, but not all.  Since ISPs cannot reliably be expected to clean up
viruses, especially from customers that do not use their mail servers
your rebuttal is invalid.  It is my responsibility to protect my
network and users, that means having to contact domains that are
misbehaving.


>>
>> 2. DNS mis-configuration issues.  If I run across a problem with a
>> domain name, I need to have an address I can contact to help correct the
>> problems.

JW>   Yes and the Admin E-Mail address is there in the Whois records for
JW> that purpose.  Hence again needing to contact the personal and private
JW> contact physical address, Private E-Mail address, or Personal and private
JW> Phone # is not necessary and if by doing so, could be considered a
JW> violation of their Privacy Rights under the Privacy act...

That only works if the admin address is part of the organization that
registered the domain.  No ISP should ever make changes to a
customer's DNS record without working with them.

I have no problem with people using a proxy e-mail that forwards to
their ISP or hosting provider -- in fact I think it is a fine idea, as
long as that person reading that box actually responds in a timely
manner.

>>
>>
>> 3. Spam, I always try to contact the owner of a domain before
>> contacting their ISP.

JW>   This also can be handled by contact the Admin E-Mail address or
JW> other Admin contact information listed in the Whois record for that
JW> Domain Name.  Hence again, the need to contact directly the
JW> Registrant's Private  physical address, Private E-Mail address,
JW> or Personal and private Phone # is not necessary and again could be
JW> considered under the privacy act as a form of harassment or stalking
JW> under the Federal statutes against stalking as Karl correctly mentioned
JW> and has been done on many occasions...

Again, as long as that admin address has the authority to act on
behalf of the registrant I do not have a problem with this solution.
But people need to understand what they are giving up.

>>
>>
>> There are other reasons for getting in touch with a domain owner
>> directly.  For this reason it is important to have valid contact
>> information for that domain name.

JW>   Well so far, you have yet to provide one that is valid...  So I
JW> would be glad to see or have you provide these "Other Reasons"
JW> to which you refer.

Incorrect, I provided three very valid reasons, you simply don't
agree, but if you would like other reasons:

4. When I run into a programming error on a web site, I like to let
the site owner know.  If no contact information is included on the
site, I use the domain information to get ahold of someone who can
help.

5. Similarly, if I run across a potential security hole, I follow the
same process.

6. You seem to be in favor of an ISP-monitored address that people
could use for domain problems.  As overburdened as the help desks of
most ISPs are, I doubt this is a practical or scalable solution.  The
delay in support response from Eathlink, AT&T, MSN and the like often
borders on unacceptable now, asking these same support people to now
deal with my queries about their customer's websites seems impractical
at best.


allan
- --
Allan Liska
allan@allan.org
http://www.allan.org

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