Re: [gnso-dow123] proposal related to WHOIS Improvements

[Avri Doria <avri@xxxxxxx>]

Hi,


On 15 dec 2006, at 14.00, Marilyn Cade wrote:

> <WHOIS - Pragmatic Steps toward Balanced Approaches to  
> Improvements.doc>


Thanks for posting the proposal.  One thing that concerns me is that  
it proposes a solution before understanding the full scope and  
implications of the requirements.

As many have been arguing for a while, whois is an operationally  
broken tool, in that it cannot even fulfill its original function let  
alone the complex of other functions that been overloading it. for  
example, discussions in São Paolo with the GAC showed that there is a  
compicated structure of international and national constraints on the  
publication for personal data that require a policy structure that  
could not be instantiated with whois.  I beleive that overlaying this  
complexity on whois would be imposibile, and if tried would only  
break whois further.  It is also clear that there are no current  
solutions for the operational problem of verifying the data displayed  
by whois.

I think that a first step to any pragmatic solution would require a  
real requirements analysis of the complex of legal, operational and  
technical constraints.  Then it would be appropriate to seek  
solutions to the legal, operational and technical issues.

In the meantime, the only reasonable, secure and stable solution I  
can see is to remove the requirement for support of whois.

thanks

a.