RE: [gnso-whois-study] WHOIS study group call Tuesday 8 April 2008 at 15:00 UTC]

[Liz Gasster <liz.gasster@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks to all who could make our short-notice kick-off call on WHOIS studies.  
We will be meeting on Tuesdays at the same time and we have a short window by 
which to recommend to the GNSO Council areas for further study (if any) on 
WHOIS (currently due to the Council by 24 April).  Following is a short 
overview of our call, key deliverables for next week and next steps.

1. Overview

The group discussed how to proceed.  We first discussed whether studies should 
be commissioned at all, and confirmed that one option could be deciding to 
recommend to the GNSO Council that no studies of WHOIS be done.  This view was 
supported by some participants who are skeptical that the outcome of any study 
would change the views of entrenched parties on WHOIS issues.  We also 
discussed certain areas that might be studied further, such as the potential 
impact on registrars operating in countries with strict privacy laws if those 
countries were to begin enforcing those laws (in the gTLD space).  There was 
the concern that new WHOIS-related issues will arise that will require 
consideration notwithstanding the current WHOIS "stalemate", such as issues 
related to IDNs, greater privacy enforcement by countries, etc..., that may 
warrant further study.

I described the format and content of the summary "Report on Public Suggestions 
on Further Studies of WHOIS" of Feb. 25, 2008.  Note in particular that the 
study suggestions are grouped into seven topic areas.

1. WHOIS misuse
2. Compliance with data protection laws and registrar accreditation agreements
3. Availability of privacy services
4. Demand and motivation for use of privacy services
5. Impact of WHOIS data protection on crime and abuse
6. Proxy registrar compliance with law enforcement and dispute resolution 
requests
7. WHOIS data accuracy

These seven areas can be thought of as topical questions for further study.  If 
the consensus of the group is to proceed to identify specific areas for further 
study (meaning rather than recommending that studies not be conducted), the 
group might find it useful to decide first which of these groupings address 
questions you think having data about would inform the debate (see Key 
Deliverables below).

There was one question about whether a budget exists to conduct studies.  I 
responded that there is no pre-set budget but there is a place holder in the 
budget that the policy development group has submitted, and there is the 
understanding and expectation that the Council may request studies that ICANN 
would engage in.  Also, I noted that there is a gating process -- the Council 
has specifically noted in its resolutions that it would first identify certain 
studies that it thought should then be priced out, and then, after those 
estimates are provided, make any specific requests with those estimates in 
mind.  We also note that costs for various studies could vary significantly 
based on size, scope, complexity, etc.

2. Key deliverables

- Everyone will read the summary "Report on Public Suggestions on Further 
Studies of WHOIS" - link provided by Glen and below

- Everyone will consider the threshold question of whether WHOIS should be 
studied further -- whether any studies of WHOIS would make a meaningful impact. 
 We will discuss this further on the next call.

- Everyone will review the suggestions with an eye to whether/or which proposed 
studies would rise to your short favorites list -- or those you think should 
not be done.  We did not discuss this on the call, but if the group would like 
to email these to me ahead of time, say by Friday, I could total up the results 
of this initial view for the call.

Again, as I suggested on the call, to approach the question of which of 25 
suggestions you might support, you may find it useful to first consider which 
of the groupings address questions you think that having data about would 
inform the debate. Once you have identified which questions you want to answer, 
then you could focus on only those particular groupings and consider which 
study approach (or combination of approaches) will best answer your questions. 
In some cases we have indicated that the different study proposals answer 
slightly different questions. In some cases we indicate that some of the 
approaches are likely to give better data, or that some of the approaches are 
likely to be less expensive.  When you think about the fundamental questions 
asked by each grouping, you may find it more useful to consider the questions 
asked by each grouping as follows:


1.       How big is the WHOIS misuse problem that may need to be solved?

2.       Is there a non-compliance with data protection laws problem that needs 
to be solved?

3.       Are there already market-driven solutions available?

4.       Is there demand for market-driven solutions, and are they being used 
for legitimate or illegitimate purposes?

5.       Do WHOIS data protections lead to abuse and misuse?

6.       Are provisions for providing protected WHOIS data to law enforcement 
for investigation of crime and abuse effective?

7.       Is WHOIS data accurate?

- Staff will check on the status of an earlier study on the economics of the 
DNS that we understand to have been approved by the ICANN Board but not 
completed to-date.

- Recruit ISP representative -- in process

3. Next steps

- Next call Tuesday April 15 (a yucky day in the US, I note)
- See tasks listed in "key deliverables" above.
- Email with any questions.

Also, please feel free to correct or add to my summary.

Thanks, Liz



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gnso-whois-study@xxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:owner-gnso-whois-study@xxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
GNSO.SECRETARIAT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 8:15 AM
To: gnso-whois-study@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: [gnso-whois-study] WHOIS study group call Tuesday 8 April 2008 at 
15:00 UTC]


Dear All,

Please find the reference documents:

1.  the 'Report on Public Suggestions on Further
Studies of WHOIS'
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois-privacy/whois-study-suggestion-report-25feb08.pdf

2.Addendum
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois-privacy/addendum-whois-study-suggestion-report-27mar08.pdf


Glen de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat - ICANN
gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org
http://gnso.icann.org