RE: [ga] WHOIS TF: Brainstorming session on privacy.

["Michael D. Palage" <michael@palage.com>]

Thomas:

We spoke in Berlin a couple of weeks ago about this topic. My strong
preference is a tiered access approach. I was working on a paper to submit
in conjunction with the upcoming ITU conference but was unable to meet the
deadline :-( Until I complete this paper I will defer on the specifics of my
tiered access approach other that to state that at one end of the spectrum
it would provide government/law enforcement broad access to combat crime and
other illegal activities. A mid tier approach would provide registrars and
intellectual property attorneys qualified access for use of the data in
connection with specific activities (xfers, cyberquatting), then there would
be the lowest tier which would be for average users with min. information.

My personal opinion is that although the Whois Task Force should be
commended for its work to date and its acknowledgement of this important
issue, I believe it should strongly consider commissioning a new task force
with new blood and the appropriate skill set to handle this issue of
privacy. I have gained a heightened sense of this issue from my European
colleagues, including yourself.

The issue of data privacy is a legal matter involving national laws. So my
recommendation would be to defer this brain storming session until the Task
Force could obtain a representative from the European Commission, as well as
some other highly qualified individuals (yourself included) that actually
understand and appreciate the differences between EU and US national law.

One of the things that I have generally found lacking in most of the
discussions to date on this subject matter is a failure to analyze the
underlying national laws and their scope. I gave a presentation to the
registrar/registry constituency this past Friday in DC during a joint
meeting. My purpose was to help educate registration authorities on both
sides of the pond on the different perspectives on the same issue. This was
a revision/mark-up of a presentation that I gave to the American
Intellectual Property Law Association last month at their mid-year meeting.
I have attached a pdf copy (75k) for anyone wishing to review it. As always
I welcome any constructive feedback.

To date I have generally heard two extremes in the Whois debate, with no one
seeking a middle ground that would potentially address the concerns of all
participants in the debate. If you would like I could make myself available
during tomorrow's call to help in the discussion.

Keep up the good work.

Best regards,

Mike





> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-ga@dnso.org [mailto:owner-ga@dnso.org]On Behalf Of Thomas
> Roessler
> Sent: Monday, February 24, 2003 2:16 AM
> To: ga@dnso.org
> Subject: [ga] WHOIS TF: Brainstorming session on privacy.
>
>
> The WHOIS Task Force is going to hold a brain-storming session on
> WHOIS privacy tomorrow, in preparation of its planned privacy issues
> report.  If you want Kristy, Abel or me to raise any specific issues
> you may have, please let us know about them ASAP.
>
> Regards,
> --
> Thomas Roessler
> <roessler@does-not-exist.org>
> --
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database-dataprivacy.PDF