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

[Liz Gasster <liz.gasster@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Stéphane, good to get a discussion going on these aspects.

So, based on your comment, if you look at the study suggestion summary, do you 
think it would be useful to conduct any of the studies included in the second 
grouping of studies -- "Compliance with data protection laws and registrar 
accreditation agreements" -- study numbers 16, 22, 23 24?  If not, do you have 
a thought of how you might modify one of those to capture your idea?

Comments from others?

Thanks, Liz



-----Original Message-----
From: Stéphane Van Gelder [mailto:stephane.vangelder@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 1:28 PM
To: Liz Gasster; 'GNSO.SECRETARIAT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx'; gnso-whois-study@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [gnso-whois-study] WHOIS study group call Tuesday 8 April 2008 at 
15:00 UTC]

Hello Liz,

Having just volunteered for the WHOIS study group and therefore being new to
it, I would hate to go back over points that have previously been raised.

I would however like to stress the importance of local privacy law
compliance for European registrars operating in the gTLD namespaces.

On these aspects, it may be useful to the group's work to gain a better
understanding of the situation in countries like France. As some of the
group members may know, when .FR was opened up to individuals in 2004, there
was a legal requirement to make the WHOIS "private" by default. This means
that today, the French WHOIS basically functions on two levels: anonymous
for individuals and shown for commercial entities.

I am happy to provide any feedback or information about the impact of
France's private WHOIS system from a registrar's viewpoint.

Kind regards,

Stéphane Van Gelder
Directeur Général / General manager

INDOM - Noms de domaine / Domain names
124-126, rue de Provence
75008 Paris. France
0820 77 7000
(Prix d'un appel local)
De l'étranger (calling from outside France): + 33 1 76 70 05 67
www.indom.com

Daily domain name industry news: www.domaines.info
Mon blog/My blog : www.stephanevangelder.com




-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gnso-whois-study@xxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-gnso-whois-study@xxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Liz Gasster
Sent: mardi 8 avril 2008 20:56
To: GNSO.SECRETARIAT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx; gnso-whois-study@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [gnso-whois-study] WHOIS study group call Tuesday 8 April 2008
at 15:00 UTC]


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-25f
eb08.pdf

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


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