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