Question: In recent times it became more difficult to find valid contacts in case of spams and/or network attacks due to out-dated, incomplete, or simply unavailable whois records. What is your opinion regarding global policies by ICANN that would ensure accountability for domain names and IP addresses?

Nominee Replies

Winfried Schueller - posted on 2000-09-18 06:57:44 The accuracy and performance of the WHOIS service for the .com/.net/.org domains has been a point of concern for many years now. WHOIS is essential for retrieving information about a domain in case of problems. Distributed databases, which are not regularly updated by the registrars, will aggravate this problem in the future. Therefore ICANN should make it mandatory for TLD managers to provide a centralized WHOIS-database, which must be updated by all registrars. If a registrar ceases to exist, it must be prevented that any data is lost. Replications could be allowed as well as distributed data entry, but with the rise of new TLDs, new registrars and new registries, a stabile WHOIS is key. Data privacy issues must be seriously taken into account. Andy Mueller-Maguhn - posted on 2000-09-14 14:26:52 Anonymity is not wished in this area, where abuse is a problem. Regular checks on the validity of the data etc in the Whois database could avoid the worse. So I could imagine more attention to this problem through discussion and supporting of concepts while avoiding to put to many rules, in the area of administration, which could possible have heavy cost effects and make it to bureaucratic. Administration must be as decentrally as possible and as regulated as necessary, not more. Too much data just brings more problems, as already pointed out by Jeanette. Jeanette Hofmann - posted on 2000-09-13 19:02:51 As you probably know, the Whois database itself has been abused by spammers... As Alf Hansen has already pointed out, Whois is maintained by the TLDs' registries. On behalf of the intellectual property owners and the consumers, the Intellectual Property Constituency has recently suggested to create a centralized system that would provide full transparency of the of domain name owners' identity. I strongly object both a centralized Whois database and any obligation imposed on the (ccTLD) registries that would force them to fully disclose the domain name holders' identity. The decentral system provides for varying answers to the trade-off between accountability and privacy protection. Alf Hansen - posted on 2000-09-10 12:11:31 The Who is database is the responsibility of the Registry (TLD). If the Who is database is distributed within a TLD (ex. Registrars are maintaining theirpart of the database), the responsibility for the quality of the data remains at the Registry. In general ICANN should set the limited policy: A TLD must keep a who is database for operational purposes. Each TLD manager should deceide how the Who is database is operated and define the copyright statements based on the the juridistiction valid for the TLD. Local data protection lasw may limit the possibility to distribute certain data elements.