* Neil Schwartzman wrote:
I'm wondering - for any of those who tout the privacy concerns of domain owners, why you hold them in higher regard than the privacy concerns of victims of spamming, phishing, malware, and identity theft, let alone more egregious activities. I'm also wondering have you ever conducted an abuse investigation yourselves, or i this just theoretical for you?
None of us is allowed to bypass the local law, just because we like to do so. There were various and heated policitcal controversies for decades to find a balance between privacy and maintaining social order.
And one of the outcomes of those debates is: Yes, privacy outlaws low level crime by default.
Lutz, You, and others, seem to forget that this is not a privacy issue. The whois information is VOLUNTARILY provided as contractually required to register a domain name. I tend to doubt the law of any country prevents a person from VOLUNTARILY making public information in exchange for something of perceived value. Karl had not disputed this, so I believe that I am correct that in the USA and many other jurisdictions make public the ownership of real property. Domain names are in essence the "real property" of the internet. With wordpress.com, and other free and paid blogging sites there is no requirement that one has a domain name to put forth opinions and viewpoints. What do you consider low level crimes? Identity theft? child pornography, sex slavery?