[ga] Re: General Counsel on .name WHOIS

[Alexander Svensson <alexander@svensson.de>]

>FYI: http://www.icann.org/minutes/report-gnr-whois-26nov02.htm
>
>...
>
>Recommendation
>
>In view of the above analysis, I recommend that the Board approve
>the amendment to the Registry Agreement as requested by GNR.

On the substance of the proposal: I think it is a good idea
for gTLD registries, registrars and registrants to gather
some experience with privacy protection in the Whois database.
Free public access to non-personal data and restrictions with
regards to personal data are a way forward, and we will have
to see whether there are attempts to abuse the detailed and
extensive lookup capabilities. There are of course already
various models for Whois privacy in the ccTLD environment
(e.g. you will not find a registrant's or admin-c's home 
phone number in the .de Whois), but in the gTLD space, this is
a move in the right direction. 

Since the change was probably largely to the fact that Global 
Name Registry is subject to UK laws, this could become quite
interesting when other Europe-based registry operators run
new gTLD which are not solely targeted at individuals. 

Procedurally, I think the analysis correctly states that the
proposal "appears not to threaten any significant harm to 
legitimate interests of third parties" and should therefore
be approved. However, this is yet another case where the
registries, the registrars and the IP constituency submit
statements -- and we lack a voice of registrants/individual 
users. I do hope we get an Interim ALAC which quickly becomes
familiar with gTLD issues and provides input on issues like this.

Best regards,
/// Alexander

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