Subject: Re: [Asrg] Assume perfect knowledge by domain registry provisioners, so what?

From: Yakov Shafranovich <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 23:04:04 -0400

>From: "Jon Kyme" <[email-masked]>
>
> >
> > I would suggest in general that the working group should recommend to
> > ICANN a stricter enforcement of the WHOIS rules
>
>You're probably familiar with this document:
>
>http://www.icann.org/gnso/whois-tf/report-19feb03.htm
>
>There's an interesting minority report at the bottom.

Actually I have never seen the original report, only portions of it. Thank 
you for pointing it out. Based on the conversations on the list in the last 
few days, especially the objections from Eric, it seems that the WHOIS data 
will not useful for stopping spam itself in real time. First of all as Eric 
Brunner and Ken Hinkley pointed out, it would be impractical and very hard 
for the registrars to actually enforce these rules due to cost, ability to 
verify the data, etc. Second, as Ken Hinkley pointed out, it would also be 
hard to use the data in real time due to limits on WHOIS queries, etc.

Therefore, it seems that WHOIS data is useful only for tracking down 
spammers not spam by ISPs and law enforcement authorities. They can use 
this data AS A TOOL, not as an absolutely true source of information but 
for real time spam blocking it is not very useful. Privacy provisions 
raised in this minority report if implemented will not stop LEA from 
accessing the data since it would still be available under subpoenas and 
warrants (or ICANN can allow them easy access under the privacy rules). 
Nevertheless, I am still standing by my recommendation for stricter 
enforcement of WHOIS rules but a balance must be drawn since we do not want 
to drive the registrars into bankruptcy or have the overall registration 
prices for domains to go up.

Yakov

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From: Eric Brunner-Williams in Portland Maine <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 08:19:00 -0400

Yakov,

These:

Message-Id: <[email-masked]>
Message-Id: <[email-masked]>
Message-Id: <[email-masked]>
Message-Id: <[email-masked]>

all are speculative about some aspects of gTLD registrars and some sources
of administrative law (ICANN).

1. The quesiton I posed was not an invitiation to speculate as to the use
or non-use of whois:43, nor the cost models of registrars, nor the levers
of power.

2. I personally don't think the whois:43 and similar publication systems have
utility in this space.

Eric