Hello All, The Board approved the proposed Telnic solution to WHOIS at its meeting last week. The solution is documented at: http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/tel/telnic-proposed-app-s-20nov2007 .pdf I thought it would be useful to summarise some of the key components. (1) Telnic distinguishes between "Legal Persons" and "Natural Persons". (2) A Natural Person may opt-out of the disclosure of their personal information to the general public. (3) If a Natural Person chooses to opt-out, the following information will be disclosed to the general public: Domain Name, Domain ID, Sponsoring Registrar, Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID, Domain Status, Registrant ID, Registrant Name, Name Server, created by registrar, last updated by registrar, domain registration date, domain expiration date, and domain last updated date. (4) There is a "Special Access Service" for those that require the personal information of a Natural Person. Requestors must be able to demonstrate a legitimate need for access to such personal information. (5) To access the "Special Access Service", a requestor needs only to fill-in an online form once. The requestor will be required to submit their Company Name, Contact Name, Address (street address, city, state, postal code, and country), Email Address and Telephone Number. To confirm that the requestor is a verifiable person or company a personal identification number and a URL link will be mailed or sent by courier to the postal address provided by the requestor. The cost of such courier service will be at the requestor's expense. The link that was sent to the requestor will take them to a secure Special Access Service activation page. The requestor will then enter their personal identification number in order to activate their Special Access Service account. Upon activation, a user name and password will be sent to the email address provided by the requestor above. The user name and password provided to the requestor will be used to access the Special Access Service, subject to the terms and conditions being met for each new request. After logging into the Special Access Service, the requestor will complete an information request form indicating the domain name about which additional information is requested, and they will be required to demonstrate a legitimate need to access this additional information by selecting the reason such access is requested from a drop down menu. If the appropriate reason is not listed in the drop down menu, the requestor must select "Other" and specify the reason. The requestor will also be required to agree (via a click through agreement) to accept the terms and conditions of access, which specify the following: (i) they have a legitimate reason for accessing the information, (ii) they will not use the data for marketing purposes, spamming, data-mining, or unlawful purposes, ( iii) they will not share information derived from the Special Access Service with any individual or entity that is not bound by the terms of the Special Access Service except as necessary to accomplish the specified, legitimate purpose (iv) they will not share their user name and password with any unauthorised third parties, (v) they understand and acknowledge that they will be accessing personal information, and (vi) they understand and acknowledge that the Registry Operator records information about all searches of the Special Access Service (including the reason for such search). To prevent data-mining and other forms of bulk data access, each Special Access Service request will be limited to five (5) queries per twenty four (24) hours. Regards, Bruce Tonkin