ICANN Whois System

["Gerard van Hulst" <g.vanhulst@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

________________________________

Dear Sirs,
 
Through INTA it has been brought to my attention that on October 31,
2007 that ICANN's policy advisory body (the Generic Names Supporting
Organization (GNSO) Council) will vote on three motions that will
determine the future structure of the domain name and Whois system.
 
After having reviewed the three motions I have come to the conclusion
that I am clearly in favor of Motion 2. There can be no doubt about that
fact non whatsoever that it's extremely important for the clients of the
Novagraaf Group having 12 offices in five European countries -
Netherlands, Belgium, UK, France and Switzerland - to be able to have
and maintain free access to the Whois database containing contact and
owner details for all existing generic Top-Level Domain Name
registrations. Same should be the case with respect to future new
Top-Level domains.
 
In the day to day practice same does enable us to take swift action
against any party violating e.g. the IP rights of our clients which in
fact is becoming a matter of growing concern.
No doubt you will also be aware of the fact that nowadays corporations
have to spent large sums of money to act against infringing parties. If
it would be decided to limit the access to the Whois records our clients
would be forced to spent even more money to stop misuse of their IP
rights. Considering that nowadays it's becoming easier for our clients
to have access to all kind of records it would be remarkable to say at
the least if ICANN would choose to go into opposite direction!.
 
Hence I strongly support Motion 2!
 
Yours truly,
 



Gerard J. van Hulst 

Director Global Accounts
Novagraaf Nederland B.V. 
tel.: + 31 (0)20 5641430 
fax.: + 31 (0)20 6962303 
e-mail: g.vanhulst@xxxxxxxxxxxx 

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