Please find attached a draft for what could go to our announce list
on WHOIS. The text is deliberately trying to stay away from
academic diligence and delicate diplomacy -- instead, it's an
attempt to communicate the fundamental dilemma in simple words, and
make it clear to people why they should be concerned.
Concerning the FAQ idea which I had mentioned late last week, it
seems that there is some work towards a "glossary" underway with
some people involved in the unofficial whois-coordination list. I
don't think we don't need to duplicate that work.
Comments or thoughts?
--
Thomas Roessler <roessler (at) does-not-exist.org>
From: alac :;
To: announce list:;
Subject: WHOIS Workshop: How to keep personal information from being
abused.
If you have registered a domain name, it's likely that your name,
home address, e-mail address and phone number (and some information
about your domain name registration) are just one click away for any
Internet user who'd ask. The information is being used by ...
... old friends, to find old friends.
... ex-lovers, to stalk ex-lovers.
... Hollywood studios, to keep the latest films and songs off the net.
... fraudsters, to find out whom to defraud.
... law enforcement, to track down the fraudsters, and get lost money
back to victims.
... marketers, to find out whom to spam.
... spam fighters, to track down and stop spammers.
... cybersquatters, to find out when your registration lapses, so
they can point your home page to porn.
... trademark holders, to get domain names taken by cybersquatters.
How do we keep the information available for the good guys, while
keeping the bad guys from abusing it? Who are the good guys and bad
guys? To help figure it out, join us for a workshop being held by
ICANN in Montréal on June 24 and 25.
To try the system yourself, go to <http://www.uwhois.com/>.
To learn more about ICANN's Montreal meetings, go to
<http://www.icann.org/montreal/>.
To learn more about the current state of the discussion, go to
<http://www.icann.org/gnso/issue-reports/whois-privacy-report-13may03.htm>.
To comment on this issue, or submit proposals for the workshop,
please send e-mail to <forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>.