The Death of Whois Database?

[rudyhernandez]

October 29, 2007

WHAT IT IS: A group of searchable databases that list full names, organizations, postal and e-mail addresses and phone numbers for owners of domain names ending in ".com" and other major suffixes.

WHY THE FUSS: Privacy advocates believe individuals should be able to own domain names without revealing personal information that could lead to spam, harassment or loss of anonymity. Trademark lawyers, law-enforcement officials and other Whois supporters believe access is necessary to fight sites that engage in piracy and fraud.

WHAT'S NEXT: A panel on Wednesday (10/31/07) is to consider options that include abolishing the system or conducting additional studies.

More at:
Associated Press
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...VACY?SITE=OKTUL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Stay Informed.
Rudy
Logistik Labs


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[stscac]

I hope not.

:td: to abolishing whois.

-Steve

 

[DJ-Sound]

Although whois is valuable to domain resellers, I'd support changing the rules, a individual with no business address and phone number should not have to list their own personal information to own a domain in my opinion. Getting rid of whois altogether seems little harsh tho.

 

[Chris.]

Although whois is valuable to domain resellers, I'd support changing the rules, a individual with no business address and phone number should not have to list their own personal information to own a domain in my opinion.

Same opinion here.

 

[Barrucadu]

Abolishing WHOIS? They can't do that!

 

[Daniel]

Abolishing it is too far, Perhaps make name required, and the rest optional.

I'll be honest, I doubt it'll change either way.

 

[Barrucadu]

Abolishing it is too far, Perhaps make name required, and the rest optional.

I would say name and email required, and the address and phone number optional.

 

[creature]

Keep the whois private at the registrar with a say $1 fee to buy the whois info of the owner. Then make all domain names close to free to register.

 

[HFear]

I think that whois information should only be required for business/commercial websites, and personal websites shouldn't require any whois information.

 

[Domagon]

I'll toss my 2 cents in ... detailed whois is NOT away ... if anything, don't be surprised if whois for .com / .net soon becomes more centralized with the registry holding all whois data for .com / .net much like PIR does for .org domains.

For folks seeking privacy, get a PO box, throwaway email / phone number, etc ... or register it in the name of an agent - ie. privacy services that already exist.

Publicly accessible whois is so important for both legal and practical reasons that eliminating it is not a viable option... whois is here to stay; various business interests will make darn sure of that.

Ron

 

[stscac]

Keep the whois private at the registrar with a say $1 fee to buy the whois info of the owner. Then make all domain names close to free to register.

Do I hear .name?

-Steve

 

[Dave_Z]

Publicly accessible whois is so important for both legal and practical reasons that eliminating it is not a viable option... whois is here to stay; various business interests will make darn sure of that.

Agreed.

 

[rudyhernandez]

I'm still torn between opinions.
On one hand I can definitely see how an "individual with no business address and phone number should not have to list their own personal information to own a domain",......but...."a publicly accessible Whois is also important for both legal and practical reasons that eliminating it is not a viable option."

*shaking head

I just don't know.


Rudy

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[lee101]

I would say name and email required, and the address and phone number optional.

I agree with this, at least then you allow people to still be able to contact you about domains ... without making it easy for people to gather information about you.

 

[Shane]

I would say name and email required, and the address and phone number optional.

Agreed. I hate the idea of getting rid of whois but if they make some fields optional then i agree.

 

[pokainc]

1- A person should be forced to provide a legitimate email and if the email is ever changed they should have to provide a reason for it and the new email should be verifiable by the Registrar in question.

2- The first name of the person should also be verifiable by the Registrar one way or another.

The Previous 2 information pieces should be PUBLIC.

The last name, address and so-on should only be available to authorities in a confidential manner and kept within the Registrar's records.


Someone interested in buying a domain, then fine, the info is there to contact the owner of the domain. But nobody should be allowed to know exactly where you live.

Imagine you live in NewYork or somewhere, You own a 300 000$ domain and you forget to renew your whois protection.

If the information gets in the wrong person's hands they can try to extort money from you.

It is a clear violation of privacy. When you buy a television, the whole world doesn't need to know that you bought it and where you live. Why shouldn't it not also apply to domains.

The only reason this is going on is not to really "prevent" fraud. If it is to prevent fraud then when a domain is transfered to a registrar or something the Registrar should have an anti-fraud division doing audits.

If you pay the Registrar anywhere from 1.5 to 2$ they provide you with whois protection. So what now that you payed to make your information private everything is fine?

It looks as if if you pay us it's ok nobody needs to know your I.D. but if you don't then you might be faciliating fraud. Even though in both cases the info would not be the one of the owner's.

 

[bgmv]

Abolishing WHOIS? They can't do that!

i concur. it is a huge asset to domaining and a proven veteran.

 

[webfreak]

If you pay the Registrar anywhere from 1.5 to 2$ they provide you with whois protection. So what now that you payed to make your information private everything is fine?

It looks as if if you pay us it's ok nobody needs to know your I.D. but if you don't then you might be faciliating fraud. Even though in both cases the info would not be the one of the owner's.

With a private registration, the registrar still maintains accurate contact information, but is supposed to only release them with a court order. So, in the first case, the public cannot see the correct contact info, but the registrar can. In the second case (fake whois information), no one sees the correct contact info.

 

[Barrucadu]

Imagine you live in NewYork or somewhere, You own a 300 000$ domain and you forget to renew your whois protection.

If the information gets in the wrong person's hands they can try to extort money from you.

Honestly, how often is that likely to happen? If you're that paranoid, you can set up a PO box, enter a mobile number, and operate under a business name with a business email address.

 

[Shane]

Honestly, how often is that likely to happen? If you're that paranoid, you can set up a PO box, enter a mobile number, and operate under a business name with a business email address.

Yep, and also if your that rich and have that much money then.. Why would ya live in New York? Move to treasure island lol :hehe: