[gnso-reg-sgc] FW: FYI: CALL SUMMARY Sub group C, 2 May, 2007
Dear all, Sorry - I forgot to re-attach Jon's paper. Here you go, Maria _____ From: Maria Farrell [mailto:maria.farrell@xxxxxxxxx] Sent: Friday, May 04, 2007 12:42 PM To: 'gnso-reg-sgc@xxxxxxxxx' Subject: FYI: CALL SUMMARY Sub group C, 2 May, 2007 Dear sub group members, Attached is a brief summary of this sub group's conference call this week. Best regards, Maria Farrell Sub group C Conference call summary 2 May 2007 Participants: Jon Bing (sub group Chair) Ross Rader Philip Sheppard Avri Doria Denise Michel Glen de Saint Gery Maria Farrell Scope of work Reminder: this sub group's scope of work follows item 4C of the WG Charter. The sub group needs to compile information on options to: "Determine whether and how a distinction could be made between the registration contact information published based on the nature of the registered name holder (for example, legal vs. natural persons) or its use of the domain name (for example, commercial versus non-commercial use)." The group is focusing on how these distinctions might be made rather than why. 1 Discussion paper Jon Bing summarised his discussion paper. (see attached) An initial observation from this paper was that "the only distinction that is both operative and which relates to the issue at hand would be the distinction between individuals and legal persons." This distinction is not without its own problems. Distinguishing between commercial and non-commercial or public and private entities is much more problematic. Some country code TLDs distinguish on the national level between legal entities and individuals, or between commercial and non-commercial activities. 2 Individual versus commercial registrations If registrants were allowed to self declare as individuals versus legal entities, this may create an incentive for bad actors to say they are individuals and evade wider publication of their data. On the other hand, this issue could be dealt with as one of data accuracy and verification of information through existing (WDPRS -Whois Data Problem Reporting System; http://wdprs.internic.net/) or improved processes. If someone made a claim that wasn't sustainable, like a wrong address, there would have to be a process to determine it's not true of alleged miscreants. Work on challenging inaccurate data is the focus of group 4a. The group broadly agreed with Jon's discussion paper that in principle, and with the caveats in the paper noted, distinguishing between legal entities and individuals is relatively straightforward in principle. Chris Wilson - agree that when alternatives are reported, we should report them with a red flag attached. 1st wishlist on basis of distinction of natural, legal. And then 2nd wishlist on use, commercial non commercial, of proposals for alternatives under each. There are two levels and they implicate different things. 3 Commercial and non-commercial use Use of a domain name can't be verified as clearly as the nature of registrant. Use of a domain name - and the website and emails attached - can vary within the use (e.g. blogging with AdWords) and also change from one day to the next. The group broadly agreed that distinguishing between commercial and non-commercial use of a domain registration is not straightforward. 4 Interaction of two categories; legal/individual and commercial/non-commercial The group looked at registrations across both categories, for example, a registrant self declaring as an individual who also makes commercial use of the registration or an organisation that wanted to be treated with rules for data of individuals. The group noted that making distinctions in these categories might lead to a change in the amount of data available openly or differences in access to the data. The distinctions could have implications in three layers; type of data collected, data available publicly, and conditions in which data not accessible publicly is accessible in a non public manner. The group discussed a possible two tier approach to self declaration; first, the registrant would declare if she is an individual or a legal entity, secondly whether the registration will be used for commercial or non-commercial purposes. However, distinctions in the two categories may not be apparent to users. Increasingly, individual registrants use their domains for mixed purposes, in contrast to a corporation that might be said to use its registrations almost entirely for commercial purposes. Self declaring as commercial versus non-commercial may be difficult for individual registrants, since the Internet is itself changing the nature of what is public and private. The group agreed to develop criteria to distinguish between the two categories. Actions: * Maria will circulate a matrix for the group to fill in with criteria for distinguishing within the two categories. Attachment:
Whois-legal-natural-1.doc |