WHOIS discussion comments

[Edward Lassotovitch <elassoto@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

WHOIS has always been an important tool. When it was first implemented it was 
fairly simple due to the fact that the vast majority of domains were registered 
with the InterNIC. However, over time, due to more gTLD registrars, WHOIS 
became hard to use. Also, the data it outputs is increasingly poor due to the 
need to obfuscate email addresses, etc. ICANN needs to regulate WHOIS to the 
extent that:

 

1) If someone attempts a WHOIS on a registrar's server, and that server does 
not own the gTLD, it needs to provide a link to the correct gTLD WHOIS server. 
All gTLD (ccTLD) registrars must support WHOIS and have readily accessible 
links to their WHOIS servers.

 

2) Owners of domain names must be kept accountable for their actions on the 
Internet. If a domain is acting inappropriately (i.e. spam), then the public 
must be able to contact that domain administrator to ask them to stop. Of 
course there will still be escalation through law enforcement if that does not 
work. What this means is that even though the email address may be obfuscated, 
there must be some way to contact the domain administrator through that 
obfuscated link to allow the public to contact them. 

 

Ed Lassotovitch

 

http://www.mysitespeed.com