Whois is an essential resource

["GROVES Peter" <PeterGROVES@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I understand that changes to the Whois service are being considered and
voted on by ICANN in the near future.  I believe that any change that
would make Whois information less comprehensive or harder to come by
would be a retrograde step, and of the motions before the meeting
numbers 1 and 3 would emasculate this essential source of information
about registrants.
 
Motion 2, calling for a study on the uses of the system prior to making
any changes, is a reasonable proposal and I would urge its adoption to
ensure that all users of the Internet continue to have access to the
information in the Whois system.
 
I frequently have to resort to Whois searches in order to discover
information about registrants of domain names, for a wide variety of
reasons.  Often, domain names are registered in trading or "doing
business as" names and no legal entity is recorded in the registration
information; frequently, details are withheld on spurious privacy
grounds.  The internet is a medium that affords dishonest businesses
myriad opportunities to hide behind aliases and to cover their tracks,
and consumer protection (as well as protection for legitimate
businesses) is rudimentary.  One of the few far-from-perfect aids to
tacking the range of fraudulent activities found in cyberspace is the
Whois system, and it seems to me that far from considering ways to water
it down, thought should be given to making it more informative.  Motion
2 will be a step towards achieving that goal.
 
Regards
 
--------------------------------------------------
Peter Groves 
Consultant
For and on behalf of Bircham Dyson Bell LLP
50 Broadway London SW1H 0BL 
t   +44 (0)20 7170 0327
www.bdb-law.co.uk <http://www.bdb-law.co.uk/> 
Bircham Dyson Bell
--------------------------------------------------
 

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