On August 23, 2019 at 11:04 karl@cavebear.com (Karl Auerbach) wrote:
As for whois "accuracy" - over the last 25 years I have not yet heard any cogent, much less persuasive, reason why private information should be made public 24x7x365 on the basis of mere curiosity without the need for the querier to state his/her own contact information, state a reason for access (and supporting proof). I believe I can speak for many domain name holders that our telephones and emails are filled with junk derived from whois, even whois entries that vanished years ago.
Many jurisdictions, and not just the US, require that if you are doing business with the public (which includes charities etc) that you must provide useful contact information. One can provide that on their web site but not all business of this nature is conducted via a web site, it might be an email offer etc. And whois was a convenient way for at least the honest to provide that contact information. Which brings us to the deeper nature of domain names. Are they all to be presumed to be an attempt to transact with the public? If not then why have one? One can come up with various reasons from the mundane (you registered your personal name) to the sublime (you thought it might be worth a million dollars one day.) But it's not always about the mental processes of the owner. A domain owner has willingly entered into a public sphere, by definition. I don't much accept the hobbyist or faddish nature of many domain ownerships as a driving force. Registries and registrars of course love that aspect as it means sales but it's the tail wagging the dog. That said I've long advocated that the publicly visible WHOIS information should be moved to a DNS record completely under the owners' control and separate from the business sales record a registrar keeps. But the same reasoning applies if not moreso since in that case an owner would have to make an effort to deceive and would lose the excuse of the potentially conflicting motivations of providing registration purchase data to a registrar vs providing general contact information for the public. -- -Barry Shein Software Tool & Die | bzs@TheWorld.com | http://www.TheWorld.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: +1 617-STD-WRLD | 800-THE-WRLD The World: Since 1989 | A Public Information Utility | *oo*