Ross, ICANN Policy document ICP-3 describes the White Paper as the "basic charter on which ICANN was founded and continues to operate". The White Paper laid out the following policy that ICANN has adopted: "Trademark holders and domain name registrants and others should have access to searchable databases of registered domain names that provide information necessary to contact a domain name registrant when a conflict arises between a trademark holder and a domain name holder." That policy was reaffirmed in the JPA's Affirmation of Responsibiltities. --- Ross Rader <ross@tucows.com> wrote:

Danny Younger wrote:

...

Re: "Furthermore, ICANN has no policy to support the status quo."

That's not how I see it.

The Joint Project Agreement's Affirmation of Responsibilities signed by the ICANN Board states:

There is no existing policy that requires Whois service to be available. There are some peripheral policies, but the core service is not governed by any policy. It was simply instantiated in the contracts as a placeholder while the community worked out what ought to happen.

If you can find a policy that says otherwise, I'm all ears.

-r

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