Hello All, Here is a copy of the notes I used in Wellington to encourage an understanding of the implications of the WHOIS formulations and stimulate discussion. I have added some headings to assist following the text below. I attempted to summarise the comments from the Council members during the discussion, but you should also refer to the transcript for the full discussion: http://www.icann.org/meetings/wellington/captioning-gnso-29mar06.htm Note I did a short search on the ICANN website, and couldn't find any basic DNS tutorial information. This is clearly something that would be worthwhile - ie some basic technical tutorials on DNS, IP addressing, DNSSEC, IDNs etc. There were some presentations by Andrew McLaughlin some years ago - but they were really just about the naming hierarchy rather than how the names are resolved to IP addresses. Regards, Bruce Tonkin WHOIS formulations: ==================== Common part: "The purpose of the gTLD Whois service is to provide information sufficient to contact a responsible party for a particular gTLD domain name who can resolve, or reliably pass on data to a party who can resolve: Formulation 1: (1) issues related to the configuration of the records associated with the domain name within a DNS nameserver." Alternatively Formulation 2: (2) technical, legal or other issues related to the registration or use of a domain name." Today the WHOIS service provides (amongst other data elements) ============================================================== (see section 3.3.1 of http://www.icann.org/registrars/ra-agreement-17may01.htm ) The name and postal address of the Registered Name Holder; The name, postal address, e-mail address, voice telephone number, and (where available) fax number of the technical contact and administrative contact for the Registered Name; and Some definitions: ================= A domain name is an identifier. Typical process (very simplified) for converting a domain name into an Internet destination (accessed via its IP address): (1) Start with domain name (e.g example.com) (2) Ask .com nameserver for the name of the DNS nameserver (a computer) for example.com. (3) .com nameserver responds with the name of the DNS nameserver (e.g ns.example.com) (4) Ask ns.example.com for information about example.com (5) Ns.example.com may respond with some records such as: a. A records (with IP address of DESTINATION) b. MX records (information about DESTINATION for sending mail) The Registered Name Holder may be "responsible" for the existence of a domain name. Typically technical people can make changes to the configuration of the domain name that defines what the domain name links to or where email will be delivered. A Registered name Holder may order services such as website hosting or email from a service provider and ask the service provider to associate a domain name with these services (note that it is not required to use a domain name), and the service provider sets the nameserver for the domain name, and/or sets the DNS records within the nameserver associated with the domain name. Use of a domain name ==================== Billions of people may use a domain name Some examples: (a) A web browser may use a domain name to find the location of a website. The web browser "looks up the DNS" to find the IP address of the computer that is hosting the website. The website operator may or may not have any association with the domain name holder. (b) A website may use a domain name to hyperlink to another website. The web browser "looks up the DNS" to find the IP address of the computer that is hosting the "other" website. (b) An email client may use a domain name to indicate the destination of an email. The email software "uses the DNS" to find the IP address of the computer that is the destination of the email. That computer in turn will put the email into the mailbox of the intended recipient of the email. The WHOIS service today only tells you who is responsible for the domain name record. It is the first link in a chain. Often the registered name holder has little or no control over the DNS records in the nameserver that is at the end of the first link in a chain. A registered name holder may give control of a domain name to a service provider, and order services from that provider that require the provider to configure the DNS records associated with the domain name. Possible actions on a domain name at the registry include: - registration - deletion from the registry - deletion of the name from the registry DNS - changing name of the nameserver - Most intellectual property and law enforcement efforts require identification of the destination. This is usually worked out in reverse from the IP address that is returned when "looking up the DNS". Ie the domain name WHOIS plays little role in this. Comments from Council members: =============================== Greg Ruth: - support formulation 2, with clarifying words that it is use by the registrant Tony Holmes and Tony Harris - believe text needs to changed to reflect your intent Marilyn Cade: - support "intent" of formulation 2 - surprised that name of the "registered name holder" would not be published - "use of" should refer to use by the Registered Name Holder Grant Forsyth: - purpose of WHOIS should to provide information sufficient be able to contact the Registered Name Holder Philip Sheppard - want to cover the purpose for which data is collected, but task fore asked for the purpose of WHOIS - believe purpose the data collected should have been identified first Robin Gross - support first formulation with no changes - second formulation has many problems because "use" has much broader implications - concerned about identity theft resulting from widespread publication Norbert Klein - support first formulation with no changes Ross Rader - support first formulation with no changes Maureen Cubberly - purpose is to provide information to contact who is the ultimate name holder - need to find out who the registered name holder - would like to make changes Avri Doria - essentially support 1 (but could be better) Sophia Bekele - support intent of formulation 2, but may need to improve wording Bret Fausett - ALAC support formulation 1 Ken Stubbs - support formulation 1 June Seo - support formulation 1 Kiyoshi - IPC support formulation 2 as is