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

[John L]

> anti-privacy?

There is a long-standing meme in the pro-phish/porn/terror* camp that the 
interests of the relative handful of individual domain registrants trump 
the interests of everyone else.  That's one of the key reasons that WHOIS 
reforms go nowhere.

Rereading Ross' message, it looks to me like he considers a domain 
registration basically just a little private agreement between the 
registrant and the registrar or registry, and it's really nobody else's 
business, which is why he characterizes everyone else as free riders. 
The problem is that it's more like a building permit, which some people 
use to build a backyard gazebo and some use to build a backyard toxic 
waste dump.

I'm sure my friends in law enforcement would be more amused than annoyed 
to hear that they're free riders when they clean up the messes that 
registrations enable, but it's not a position that is defensible in the 
long run.

R's,
John

* - we have lots more hot button insults to throw around, so let's not.