[To: council[at]gnso.icann.org; liaison6c[at]gnso.icann.org] [To: ga[at]gnso.icann.org; announce[at]gnso.icann.org] [To: regional-liaisons[at]icann.org] Please note that the following two documents have been posted on page: http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/ Staff Overview of recent WHOIS activities http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/icann-staff-overview-of-whois11oct07.pdf Staff Implementation notes WHOIS working group report http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/gnso-whoiswg-report-staff-implementation-notes-... Public comments are open on the WHOIS process until 30 October 2007. http://www.icann.org/public_comment/ Please submit comments to: <whois-comments-2007@icann.org> Comments may be viewed at: http://forum.icann.org/lists/whois-comments-2007/ Explanation: A Whois taskforce convened in June 2005 completed its work and sent a final report to the GNSO Council in March 2007. In that report, a majority of members endorsed a proposal called the "Operational Point of Contact" (OPOC) where a domain name registrant would be able to choose a third-party to appear in the public Whois information for this domain and the registrant’s contact details would no longer be displayed. Expanding on that work, the GNSO Council in March created a Whois working group to examine three issues and make recommendations on them: 1. To examine the roles, responsibilities and requirements of the OPOC, and what happens if they are not fulfilled; 2. To examine how legitimate interests will access unpublished registration data; and 3. To examine whether publication of registration contact information should be based on the type of registered name holder (legal vs. natural persons) or the registrant's use of a domain name. The working group's report [pdf] was published on 20 August 2007. On 6 September 2007, the GNSO Council approved a resolution for further public comment on the report with the intention to lead to a vote on the issue on 31 October 2007 during the Los Angeles ICANN meeting. The resolution called for ICANN staff to prepare a "draft final report" covering the Whois reports referenced above and called Staff Overview of Recent GNSO WHOIS Activity [pdf]. Public comments are invited on both of the GNSO Council's Whois reports and recommendations referenced above and summarized in the Staff Overview of Recent GNSO WHOIS Activity. Comments will be taken until 00:00 UTC (17:00 PDT) on 30 October 2007. Please take time to submit comments. Thank you. Kind regards, Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat - ICANN gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org