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

[Ross Rader]

John L wrote:

> Really?  According to your slides from Sao Paulo, it also redacts most 
> of the registrant info and adds yet to be defined hoops to jump through 
> to get access to it.

You specifically said "OPOC proposal which puts an unverified alleged 
contact in front of the current unverified
info". I was only addressing that statement. Of course there are other 
elements of the proposal.

Why again should my personal information be included in the public Whois?

> 
> I don't think combining the contacts was contentious.  The issue was and 
> is removing the useful into from public WHOIS.  The reason this has gone 
> nowhere is that all of the proposals have been purely worse than the 
> status quo for the people who use WHOIS.

No John, this is not the reason this has gone no where. It has gone no 
where because the USG government has more say in the process than 
private user. It has gone nowhere because the free riders (law 
enforcement, IP interests, ISPs) have a stronger lobby than the primary 
stakeholders. it has gone no where because specifically those interests 
have rejected every reasonable compromise that has been offered them.

Furthermore, ICANN has no policy to support the status quo. The lack of 
consensus on what this policy should be speaks volumes. Why should the 
status quo be maintained if there is no consensus to support its existence?
> 
> If there were a reasonable tradeoff, e.g., redact some but verify it so 
> once you get to the redacted stuff it's more likely to be right, there 
> could be some productive negotiations.

This, and much more substantive compromises have been offered up and 
rejected. For instance, to limit the publication waivers to private 
individuals didn't seem good enough for the free riders. That was a 
productive negotiation. (not to mention that the whole verification bit 
is a fallacy. ICANN continues to do regular data accuracy analysis and 
continues to show that the quality of Whois data is actually increasing).

> PS: I understand why registars are not thrilled about proposals that 
> require more work on every registration.

Another red herring. I'm not thrilled about having my home address 
listed in a public directory for all time with no control over its use 
contrary to the laws of the country I live in.

-r