Re: [ga] whois.txt, ala robots.txt, as a standard ?

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>]

Michael and all former DNSO GA members or other interested parties,

  Godaddy's solution is one approach to be sure.  However why should
any registrant or potential registrant have to pay $9.00US more for
what is guaranteed them under US law anyway?   I think folks
sometimes forget the Privacy Act far too often...

Michael D. Palage wrote:

> Richard
>
> As someone that has accurate whois information in connection with my domain
> name. I share your concerns. I was in Berlin earlier this week primarily to
> observer a number of panelists on the issue of data privacy. On Monday I was
> provided the following link regarding the EC viewpoints on the Whois Task
> Force Report. http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/ec-comments-whois-22jan03.pdf
>
> I am actually working on a paper on a potential solution to the Whois
> quagmire. I think you might even approve of some points :-)
>
> If you really value privacy GoDaddy's Domain By Proxy offers an excellent
> solution for around $9 dollars, http://www.domainsbyproxy.com/.
>
> Cheers
>
> Mike
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-ga@dnso.org [mailto:owner-ga@dnso.org]On Behalf Of Richard
> > Henderson
> > Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2003 6:12 PM
> > To: ross@tucows.com; 'George Kirikos'; ga@dnso.org
> > Subject: Re: [ga] whois.txt, ala robots.txt, as a standard ?
> >
> >
> > Excellent points made here by Ross
> >
> > There is no good reason why all whois data should not be *protected* and
> > only made available in extreme circumstances through a request process, if
> > need be backed up by normal legal processes.
> >
> > The WHOIS is yet another "quasi-law" which abuses consumers'
> > privacy rights.
> >
> > I've known what it's like to be stalked. It's an insane
> > situation. You start
> > to dread the phone. You start to dread the doorbell. You have to
> > start doing
> > crazy things like having pre-prepared safe houses.
> >
> > I have felt intimidated, registering domain names, knowing full
> > well that my
> > private life, my address, my phone number, my e-mail is a few clicks from
> > being accessible to people you really want privacy from. Agreed,
> > you can try
> > yahoo/hotmail e-mail details. But fake your name, and you risk losing your
> > domain.
> >
> > I would be happy for my WHOIS details to be *protected* by a registrar or
> > some kind of WHOIS 'escrow', providing the data was guarded by clearly
> > defined procedures.
> >
> > But I believe that the public exposure of personal details is unwarranted,
> > could be extremely dangerous to a minority of people, and is unnecessary
> > because other processes could be implemented instead.
> >
> > Take a person struggling for political freedom and justice in a corrupt
> > regime. Think of some of the dangers that good people could be exposed to.
> >
> > As far as I'm concerned, people do *not* have the right to know
> > my personal
> > details if I buy a domain name. Instead, they need to know that there are
> > legitimate processes and mechanisms through which they can pursue me, if I
> > abuse the use of that domain.
> >
> > Human beings have a right to privacy and a private family life.
> >
> > Richard Henderson
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Ross Wm. Rader <ross@tucows.com>
> > To: 'George Kirikos' <gkirikos@yahoo.com>; <ga@dnso.org>
> > Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2003 6:47 PM
> > Subject: RE: [ga] whois.txt, ala robots.txt, as a standard ?
> >
> >
> > > These are interesting thoughts George, but I really believe that we need
> > > to completely disengage from the current system and its implications and
> > > start again from scratch. This proposal and those in development
> > > elsewhere seem to place an emphasis on fixing the mistakes of whois
> > > rather than creating a system that works.
> > >
> > > Let's start the re-engineering with a very basic question.
> > >
> > > Marketers do not need more rights when it comes to my personal data. The
> > > trademark, copyright and patent lobby do not need further rights when it
> > > comes to the protection of their interests. Individuals need a very
> > > basic mechanism that provides marketers and anyone else who wishes to
> > > use this very personal data with a means to ask the individual for
> > > permission to use the data. Once permission has been granted, then the
> > > individual can provide that information to the marketer.
> > >
> > > Full stop.
> > >
> > > Thefore, the basic question is, how do we do this? We can't even begin
> > > to start fixing the problem until we acknowledge that customers have
> > > lsot control of their data. The first step towards a solution lies in
> > > giving that control back.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >                        -rwr
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > "There's a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore like an
> > > idiot."
> > > - Steven Wright
> > >
> > > Get Blog... http://www.byte.org/
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: owner-ga@dnso.org [mailto:owner-ga@dnso.org] On Behalf
> > > > Of George Kirikos
> > > > Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 1:39 PM
> > > > To: ga@dnso.org
> > > > Subject: [ga] whois.txt, ala robots.txt, as a standard ?
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Hello,
> > > >
> > > > I was reading through the latest WHOIS task force updates, at:
> > > >
> > > http://does-not-exist.net/final-report/final-report-feb03-030201v0.html
> > >
> > > and a thought came to mind. Just as there is a "robots.txt" standard for
> > > webcrawlers like Google, how about having a whois.txt standard that
> > > folks can optionally use on their websites?
> > >
> > > For those who don't want to put in anything beyond the standard WHOIS
> > > output (i.e. for privacy, or to avoid spam), they can leave a blank
> > > whois.txt on their website or omit it entirely. For those who want
> > > "enhanced" contact details, and want to be easily found, they can
> > > supplement what's already in the standard WHOIS.
> > >
> > > For instance, they can provide additional contacts, WHOIS in different
> > > languages, contact info for various countries, etc. This can also assist
> > > in the goal of WHOIS accuracy -- in case the registrant is unable to be
> > > reached from their existing WHOIS info, the registrar can try the info
> > > in their (by default) http://www.example.com/whois.txt
> > >
> > > Perhaps someone clever can even think of an XML format or something for
> > > this enhanced WHOIS, to allow standard tools (like other WHOIS servers,
> > > such as www.betterwhois.com or www.uwhois.com, etc.) to parse it. Folks
> > > like Alexa, for example, who already supply contact details at:
> > >
> > > http://www.alexa.com/data/details?url=icann.org
> > >
> > > (type a different URL, to see if that domain's contact info is correct)
> > > can crawl the web to get the contacts automatically, instead of mining
> > > the WHOIS, optionally for those who want to be found easily.
> > >
> > > Sincerely,
> > >
> > > George Kirikos
> > > http://www.kirikos.com/
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Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 129k members/stakeholders strong!)
================================================================
CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng. SR. Eng. Network data security
Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
Contact Number: 214-244-4827 or 214-244-3801


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