Re: [alac] Call for constituency statements (from: jordyn.buchanan@gmail.com)
I think this is an unproven assumption. Non-registrant users are not just advantaged by spammers being identified more quickly thanks to whois information (but how many spammers provide real data in whois?), but also disadvantaged by websites being taken down thanks to harassment and cease and desist letters to their owners. I deal with this stuff every day, you know. Yes, innocents are occasionally harassed, but it's rare enough that it's newsworthy when it happens. Any anyway, even if sites were completely anonymous, the C&D letters would still go to the web hosts and ISPs who have no incentive to do anything but cave in. ISPs and law enforcement can and do use it, They enforce their own acceptable use policies. When a spammer is sending spam from ISP A to tout a web site on ISP B, WHOIS is very useful for ISP B to tell what's going on. That's even true now with the inaccurate whoiS info. Perhaps this is due to a different social culture, but I am as scared by "neighbourhood watches" - be them in the real or in the online world - than I am by spamming and phishing. Hmmn. Do you have to provide accurate information to get a license plate for your car? Regards, John Levine, johnl@xxxxxxxx, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://johnlevine.com, Mayor "I dropped the toothpaste", said Tom, crestfallenly.
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