[WHOIS-WG] DRAFT ALAC Statement on the WHOIS Review

[Carlton Samuels]

Lutz:
Quick response....not exhaustive.

Re definitions, it is the *principle* that we're supporting here. The line
says '*we endorse a formal definition*...'.  This is not suggesting that we
agree with the one proposed.  What it says is we want one. In any event, we
expect the community to weigh in on what is finally determined.

To the matter of abandoning WHOIS, again, I'm not wedded to the mechanism
but to principle; there is a need to know even as we make adjustment for
peoples privacy and free speech rights.  So whatever floats the boat, I'm
in.  If your proposal will deliver these objectives then you can count on my
support.

Speaking for me and the WHOIS WG,  you can be assured that we will be
engaged on this matter with you.

Best,
Carlton

==============================
Carlton A Samuels
Mobile: 876-818-1799
*Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround*
=============================


On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 2:38 AM, Lutz Donnerhacke <lutz at iks-jena.de> wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 06:12:32PM -0500, Carlton Samuels wrote:
> > I have drafted a statement for your further indications, advice and
> consent.
> >  Please see attached.
>
> As a member of the Whois RT, I should close my mouth on this subject.
>
> Nevertheless, I wan't to point out two areas where my position inside the
> RT
> (as a ALAC delegate) does not follow the proposed comment.
>
> Let's start with the easy part: Definition of law enforcement.
>  My definition is narrow "A law enforcement agency is an government agency
>  responsible for the enforcement of the laws, which is subject to judicial
>  or open civil overview." (Extracted from Wikipedia, added "civil overview"
>  to prohibit secrect and military services)
>  S:
> http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/rt4-whois/Week-of-Mon-20110131/000537.html
>
>  The current proposal is "Law Enforcement shall be considered to be an
>  entity authorized by a government and whose responsibilities include the
>  maintenance, co-ordination, or enforcement of laws, multi-national treaty
>  or government-imposed legal obligations."
>  S: https://community.icann.org/display/whoisreview/A+-+Law+enforcement
>
>  The current proposal for the definition includes "maintain, co-ordinate"
>  in addition to "enforce", so extending law enforcement to law making
> bodies
>  as well as regulatory authorites.
>
>  The current proposal for the definition replaced "government agency" by
>  "entity authorized by a government", so extending law enforcement to any
>  kind of commercial organisation which is in charge of an government
>  contract regarding any lawful acitivity.
>
>  The current proposal of the definition includes "multi-national treaty or
>  government-imposed legal obligations" in addition to law, so extending the
>  law enforcement to any kind of intellectual propererty and contract law.
>  This allows any commercial body to insist on the same rights as classical
>  law enforcement.
>
> I'll not complain about how the current definition was generated. You might
> follow the discussions on the mailinglist and the phone call transcripts,
> if
> you like to complain.
>
> If possible, I'd like to get support from ALAC in pointing out the problems
> with the definition instead of endorsing it without understanding the
> implications. But that's not my duty: I should be quiet on the comment
> *sniff*
>
> And now to the more controverse part: Legitimation of whois.
>  I personally believe, that whois services are a dinosaurier within the
>  Internet. It exists soley because of it's history, not for legitimate
>  and legal purposes. Therefore I propose to remove whois services
>  alltogether and propose other methods of contacting people, i.e. requiring
>  imprint on web pages or contacting the ISP determined by the BGP routing
>  table. I know that this will lead to a minority report.
>
>  A detailed description of my position can be found here:
>  http://wwwneu.iks-jena.de/eng/Blog/That-s-the-way-it-always-have-been
>
> If possible, I'd like to get support from ALAC in insiting on enumation of
> use cases for whois, in order to better understand the legitimate uses.
> But that's not my duty: I should be quiet on the comment *sniff*
>
> Futhermore I set up a online questionaire in order to gain more outreach
> from the community (Work in progress: http://whois-rt4-survey.iks-jena.de/
> )
> Despite there is a informal support within the RT to gain such input, the
> subgroups tend to prepare the questionaires in a form only applicable with
> the ICANN structures. I'd like to ask for support from the AtLarge
> community
> to urge the RT to prefer easy to use (and multilingual) online forms of
> input collection in order to gain more outreach to the community.
>
> Thank you for supporting my work.
>
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