[Fwd: BSA's Response to ICANN's call for public comments regarding changes to Whois]

["GNSO.SECRETARIAT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sujet:  BSA's Response to ICANN's call for public comments regarding
changes to Whois
Date:   Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:55:15 -0700
De:     Neil MacBride <NeilM@xxxxxxx>
Pour ::         <whois-comments-2007@xxxxxxxxx>
Copie à ::         <twomey>, <vint>



The Business Software Alliance (BSA) submits the following in response
to ICANN's call for public comments regarding changes to Whois. See
http://www.icann.org/public_comment/#whois-comments-2007.

BSA is the voice of the world's commercial software industry and its
hardware partners before governments and in the international
marketplace.  We also operate an active enforcement program against
infringement of our member companies' copyrights, including
infringements that take place online.  Ready access to Whois data plays
an important role in this enforcement program.  Such access is also
critical in combating online frauds such as phishing, as explained in
more detail in past submissions of the Anti-Phishing Working Group (see
http://forum.icann.org/lists/whois-comments/msg00075.html).

BSA has followed the debate within ICANN through the activities of the
Intellectual Property Constituency of the GNSO, in which we participate
through the Coalition for Online Accountability.  We generally support
the position taken by the IPC as set out on pages 26-28 of the Staff
Report on Whois developments, see
http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/icann-staff-overview-of-whois11oct07.pdf,
and in particular oppose the implementation of the OPOC ("operational
point of contact") proposal.  This proposal would remove from public
access much data on domain name registrants that is important for
maintaining transparency and accountability online., and provides no
mechanism for access to this suppressed data by entities with a
legitimate need for it, including copyright owners.

Public access to gTLD domain name registrant data through Whois has been
a positive factor in promoting confidence in the Internet and in
e-commerce.  BSA urges ICANN to exercise great caution before deviating
from this time-tested and long-standing practice.  In this regard, the
proposal to conduct a comprehensive study of the uses and abuses of
Whois data strikes us as the right course to follow at this point. The
results of this study should lead to better policy outcomes in this
complex area.

Thank you for considering the views of BSA.

Neil H. MacBride

Vice President, Legal Affairs
Business Software Alliance
1150 18th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
+ 1(202) 530-5134 (direct)

+ 1(202) 872-5501 (fax)
_neilm@xxxxxxxx
www.bsa.org <file:///\\www.bsa.org>






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