[At-Large] Impressions from the Whois-Review

[Derek Smythe]

+1 John.

On 2011/01/31 18:37, John R. Levine wrote:
....
> I talk to many of the same law enforcement people that Neil does, and I
> hear the same thing: even in its current imperfect form WHOIS is an
> invaluable tool for tracking down the criminals who prey on the
> non-technical users that the ALAC purportedly represents.  You may not
> like it, but it's the truth.


In fact this should be old news for Lutz, see
http://www.icann.org/en/presentations/leibowitz-mar-26jun06.pdf:
" In some instances, though, even inaccurate Whois information can be 
useful in tracking down Internet fraud operators. "
[Jon Leibowitz, FTC]

All I can say here is that whois details does serve to link together 
malicious and predatory behavior on the net, and in some cases prevent 
and defend ordinary Internet users from that abuse some put the net 
to, the usage of which includes domain names.

Also, anybody wishing to refute that non-LE third parties play an 
important part in fighting Internet abuse, is not in touch with what 
is happening on the Internet currently.

Derek