Re: [At-Large] [NA-Discuss] Community Input Requested on Two DraftStatements from ALAC to the ICANN Board

["Jeffrey A. Williams" <jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris and all,

  Good comparison note, IMO, Chris.  I for one don't totally
agree with Jacque's stated thoughts, but do sympathize
greatly with them to the extent that spam is a huge and ever
growing problem as is phishing and other forms of IDtheft
and fraud effected by Whois data access and Whois inaccuracy.  
LEA's, particularly the CMP have stated that they cannot rely on 
Whois as a good tool for tracking or discovering various
types of perpatrators.  However Whois was never intended
as a LEA tool, it just turned out that it could be used for
one early on.  Now however the value of the data in Whois
is certainly questionable if not largly inaccurate.  What
astonishes me is that both the ICANN Bod and staff and 
DOC/NTIA have for years not dealt with Whois in a manner
that they could have, or probably should have for years
now, and as such the problem has grown into a huge ever
growing mess boardering on a condoning if not tacitly
approving of massive fraud. >:(

  For instance, I have seen domain names registered in my
name with my Email address as the Admin. contact, which were
never registered by me at any time.  At the time, I reported
those that I knew of to what was than known as NIPC, but there
was never to my direct knowledge any resolution to those
mis-registered and attributed Domain Names.  I have however
on more than once occasion recieved a few odd phone calls
regarding such from specific individuals and reported those
calls to my phone provider accordingly and requested that
they contact the FBI accordingly and was assured that they
would.   

-----Original Message-----
>From: "Blogs.pn" <namecritic@xxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Apr 8, 2008 7:32 AM
>To: jam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Cc: alac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Re: [At-Large] [NA-Discuss] Community Input Requested on Two  
>DraftStatements from ALAC to the ICANN Board
>
>Just a comparison note. It seems funny that a lot of people are against 
>eliminating the AGP altogether as a method for solving domain tasting, but 
>they are willing to take a drastic measure like making ALL whois private as 
>a soltion to the spammers. I thought the one-step-at-a-time approach to 
>things was preferred.
>
>Chris McElroy
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Jacqueline A. Morris" <jam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Cc: <alac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 7:12 PM
>Subject: Re: [At-Large] [NA-Discuss] Community Input Requested on Two 
>DraftStatements from ALAC to the ICANN Board
>
>
>>I totally agree with this view. whois has legitimate uses, especially in
>> business, and obviously needs to be accurate. What we do need, though,
>> is a way to prevent the spammers and bad guys harvesting data from the
>> whois database, without shutting it down by having it totally private
>> and hidden.
>>
>> Jacqueline
>> Derek Smythe wrote:
>>> Blogs.pn wrote:
>>>
>>>> I just think that if this is supposed to be to the benefit of
>>>> registrants, then the registrant should be the one choosing the option.
>>>> This is not a case of "most people want their whois info private,
>>>> therefore everyone must have their whois information private" or vice
>>>> versa situation.
>>>>
>>>> Each registrant should be able to choose for themselves. For example, I
>>>> do not want my whois information private. I like transparency. I like my
>>>> potential clients to have the ability to see who owns my business or who
>>>> owns the domain name I do business with. I can also see how some people
>>>> would rather have it private for very legitimate reasons.
>>>>
>>>> I just do not believe that their reasons for wanting privacy are greater
>>>> than my reason for not wanting it or vice versa. Why should their wishes
>>>> override my wishes or my wishes override their wishes?
>>>>
>>>> I'm definitely for enforcing that the whois information is accurate
>>>> whether the registrant chooses privacy or not. But that is a separate
>>>> issue. Why must the privacy issue be a one side wins or the other side
>>>> wins situation? Personal choice should override all other concerns in my
>>>> opinion.
>>>>
>>>> Chris McElroy
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Well said Chris!
>>>
>>> I believe there are options for registrants who would wish their whois
>>> to be private, since registrars do provide such a service. I myself
>>> use such a service as pointed out in my mail, also for a very
>>> legitimate reason.
>>>
>>> Likewise there are those who abuse the current whois privacy
>>> mechanisms by hiding fake whois data behind privacy services to avoid
>>> responsibility for the domain usage.
>>>
>>> There are many legitimate businesses and normal registrants who prefer
>>> their whois to be shown. In fact a protected whois record for business
>>> is a red flag.
>>>
>>> As regards the whois accuracy issue, this was the original statement I
>>> believe should stay as is:
>>>
>>>  >* WHOIS Accuracy and Reporting. We all know that WHOIS is very
>>>  > inaccurate. This is a very serious problem and considerable effort
>>>  > needs to be made to improve this situation....
>>>
>>>
>>> Derek
>>>
>>>
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>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
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>
>
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