David — thanks for that suggestion.  Here’s my reaction for you and the drafters of this comment:

The whole point of this study was to test the validity of claims by privacy advocates that misuse of public Whois was responsible for spam, harassment, and other abuse of registrants. 

First, we should say that this latest study does not document abuse arising from public access, so there is no justification to limit public access.

Second, we can claim that any restrictions on whois access that might be contemplated should nonetheless preserve access by any party needing to know the identity of who controls a domain where there is evidence of actionable harm.

From: <Fares>, David Fares <DFares@21cf.com>
Date: Tuesday, January 14, 2014 at 4:43 AM
To: Steve DelBianco <sdelbianco@netchoice.org>, "'bc-GNSO@icann.org GNSO list'" <bc-gnso@icann.org>
Subject: RE: FOR REVIEW: draft BC comment on study of Whois misuse

Steve,

 

Thank you for a well drafted statement.  Would it  be possible to incorporate into the comment that measures to address misuse should not jeopardize access to Whois data? 

 

Thanks,

David

 

From: owner-bc-gnso@icann.org [mailto:owner-bc-gnso@icann.org] On Behalf Of Steve DelBianco
Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 8:42 PM
To: 'bc-GNSO@icann.org GNSO list'
Subject: [bc-gnso] FOR REVIEW: draft BC comment on study of Whois misuse

 

ICANN posted a  Study on Whois Misuse.  

 

Back in 2009 the BC prompted this study to learn whether "Public access to WHOIS data leads to a measurable degree of misuse – that is, to actions that cause actual harm, are illegal or illegitimate, or otherwise contrary to the stated legitimate purpose."

 

We discussed this study on our 5-Dec member call.  Three BC members volunteered to review and draft comments on the study  (Jimson Olufuye, Susan Kawaguchi, John Berard).

 

As discussed on our 9-Jan call, their proposed comment is brief and should be easy for members to do an expedited review before ICANN's due date of 18-Jan-2014.

 

So please review the attached and REPLY ALL with your comments or objections before 18-Jan-2014.

 

Thanks again to Jimson, Susan, and John for stepping-up to this.

 

Best,

Steve DelBianco

Vice chair for policy coordination

 


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