The Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is seeking public comments about the latest report from its Whois task force.
The public is invited to comment on the Preliminary Task Force Report on Whois Services, which discusses a number of findings and recommendations about the domain name Whois database. The report was issued on November 22. The public comment period will continue until January 15, 2007.
After the public comment period, the Whois Task Force will consider the public comments received and prepare a final task force report for submission to the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council. The Council is expected to deliberate on the final task force report in early 2007, and work to achieve a super-majority vote on a recommendation to the ICANN Board. The GNSO Council will then submit a report to the ICANN Board, and the Board will then carry out its own deliberations and voting.
The task force was organized to address a number of issues involving the Whois database. Among the issues the task force has agreed on:
1. Many registrants do not understand the meaning or purpose of the different Whois contacts (billing contact, administrative contact, technical contact).
2. If changes are made to the Whois service, awareness-raising for registrants will be needed.
3. New mechanisms to restrict some contact data from publication should be adopted to address privacy concerns
The task force has not come to agreement on the purpose of Whois contacts and whether different data should be published in Whois.
One of the proposals outlined in the report is the Operational Point of Contact (OPoC). OPoC would deal with the issue that “the amount of data that ICANN requires registrars to display in the Whois is facilitating all sorts of undesirable behaviours like renewal scams, data-mining, phishing, identity theft, and so on.” The OPoC Proposal aimed to “rationalize the Whois data output and implement a new contact type called the ‘Operational Point of Contact'”.
The OPoC would replace the publishing of administrative and technical contacts for a domain name.
Changes to Whois requirements might affect a registrar cash cow called “domain privacy”. GoDaddy, the world’s largest domain registrar, recently received a patent related to domain privacy.
At the Morocco ICANN meeting in June FTC Commissioner John Leibowitz presented several examples of how Whois helped the FTC shut down fishers, scammers, and various illegal activities. At the April 2006 Domain Roundtable in Seattle ICANN CEO and President Paul Twomey cautioned domainers to take a long term view of the effects of Whois privacy.
You may view details and make comments here.
Leave a Comment