Whois Comment

["Levy, Steven" <Steven_Levy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To whom it may concern:

In relation to ICANN's planned October 30, 2007 vote on certain motions
relating to the Whois database, we wish to strongly urge that Motion 2
be passed and Motions 1 and 3 be rejected.

As the world's largest home improvement retailer and the owner of over
1,000 domains The Home Depot has come to heavily rely upon Whois data
when investigating a wide variety of legal claims.  These range from
theft of our customer's private information, fraud committed against our
customers, the sale of stolen merchandise and infringement of our
trademark and copyright properties.  We feel that accurate Whois
information, particularly for domains whose websites conduct commercial
transactions, is a critical component in our efforts to protect both out
customers and our own property.

As the current state of Whois information is clearly inconsistent and
often unreliable we feel that it would be a great disservice to both the
public and to rights owners to effect sweeping changes to this system
without further study.  Making such a change, as set out in Motion 1, or
doing away with Whois information completely, as set out in Motion 3,
could have far reaching and disastrous consequences to all stakeholders
and, in particular, the safety and property of the public worldwide.

Again, we urge you in the strongest possible terms to take the only
reasonable approach to this situation and pass Motion 2 and reject
Motions 1 and 3 on October 30, 2007.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
Steve Levy
Senior Director - Legal
302-798-0620 Office
302-798-2513 Fax
steven_levy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx