Brendler, Beau wrote:
Any study of WHOIS that does not include representation from end-users (note that end-users and domain registrants are not interchangable terms -- domain registrants are, in fact, a percentage of end-users) will be flawed and lack credibility.
True. Domain names are cheap mass market products. The end users should be included, if only for the fact that they might register domain names in the future. It is their best interest to get involved in policy making right now.
The real data I have seen, as I have said before, tells me end-users do not value privacy of domain name registrants over stability, security and fraud issues.
Your mileage may vary, and I guess you would find various regional sensibilities. As an example, by and large, Europeans do care about their privacy and they have written very strict laws to protect it. As I mentioned in earlier stages of the whois consultations, the GNSO took the problem from the wrong end. It would have made more sense to first find out what was allowed under the local laws of major countries and find the highest common denominator. Only then could we start elaborating a policy. Even if the GNSO had agreed on the OPOC proposal, I very much doubt it could have been implemented by all registrars/registries throughout the world in a uniform manner, if only for the fact that they are subject to their local laws first, before the ICANN policies. -- Patrick Vande Walle