[At-Large] [ALAC] WHOIS Studies

[Bill Silverstein]

> Thanks Alan and others for your hard work on this.
>
>
> To state it simply, it is not about what the ICANN community would _like_
> to achieve, it is what the community is _able_ to achieve in the real
> world. The fact gathering about the legal context applying to privacy is
> paramount in this context. It rated pretty low in the list, so it will
> most
> probably not be studied. Too bad, because we may end up with ICANN
> policies
> that some registrars may not be able to abide to, due to their local legal
> requirements, in effect distorting the market in favour of those
> registrars
> located in countries where there are little or no privacy laws.
>
> Patrick
I disagree. Though many countries have privacy protections not provided by
the USA, I suspect that those countries will allow disclosure when a party
agrees to that disclosure, by contract.