[NA-Discuss] Getting the WHOIS word out to users

[John L]

> If carried and accepted by the board, I believe this motion would have
> the effect of changing the incentives for the intellectual property, law
> enforcement and intransigent registry/registrar community such that they
> would be more threatened by losing their precious status quo and
> therefore more inclined to engage in good faith policy negotiations with
> one another. This is not happening now.

Were it to pass, the people who use WHOIS data would just sue to maintain 
the status quo.  The position of the US DOC (the position which matters 
the most) is quite clear from the requirements they put in the .US rebid 
so ICANN's track record of caving to legal threats would remain unbroken.

> For those of you that remain unconvinced that Whois abuse is 
> commonplace ...

Um, WHOIS data is public.  It's abuse that every time I register a domain, 
I get a blizzard of credit card offers, but it's not abuse that the info 
itself is public.

A good place for negotiations to start would be for the anti-data crowd to 
admit that there are indeed legitimate reasons to use WHOIS info, and 
there is not a basic right to register a domain.  (If there were such a 
right, we wouldn't be charging for them.)  That's been sorely lacking so 
far.

R's,
John