[At-Large] 9th Circuit Court ruling on ICANN Contract.

[Patrick Vande Walle]

On 08 Jan 2011, at 23:37, Roberto Gaetano wrote:

> I believe that the registration of a domain requires the owner of the domain
> to correctly identify oneself to the registering authority, but that this
> information does not need necessarily to be public.

Roberto,

I agree with you on the principle. However the devil is in the details and the implementation. 

How does the registrar unambiguously identify the registrant ? 
One way of doing that is by applying the same process as is being used for SSL certificates, namely paperwork. This is already being done on a global scale by the CA industry.  
Of course, this has a cost. That would make domains worth USD 300/year. I shiver at the consequences for the domain industry and registrants.

> a car owner is obliged
> to provide complete and accurate information to the registration authority,
> but this information is not necessarily public. 

Agree. Those who want information on domain name owners have to show their credentials.  
But again this protection has a cost. The registrar and/or the registry would have to process these requests and would transfer the costs to the registrants. 

The whole point is that none of the above can be done for USD20/year. What you are suggesting is a fundamental change in the domain name business. I don't necessarily disagree. But among the consequences, it would prevent many individuals from registering domain names.  This bothers me a lot. 

Patrick