From: http://www.icann.org/minutes/prelim-report-11sep07.htm Information Update on GNSO's WHOIS Policy Development Denise Michel advised that the GNSO has an ongoing PDP on WHOIS and at a recent GNSO Council meeting a schedule was laid out for WHOIS reports. Council will have a final vote on task force and working group reports that staff are finalizing. Staff was asked to engage in some studies on registrars and misuses, the study is also expected to review processes available today, and other studies staff is working on. An implementation assessment is being prepared on issues involved on what is referred to as the operational point of contact (OPOC) proposal. The working group report completed in March intended a point of contact in lieu of a registrant. More recently the GNSO Council established a short term working group to look at the OPOC issue, and the working group examined the roles and responsibilities of OPOC not fulfilled, legitimate interest, third party contact information should be based on registered name holder, registrants use of domain name. The working group report has some points of agreement and some of points of significant disagreement. Staff is compiling all this information for Council consideration. Susan Crawford asked the timing for when board will get the report from the GNSO. Denise Michel advised that it is very fluid at this point in that with regard to OPOC, at one point there was strong agreement on the ability to consider OPOC proposal and the support for that proposal decreased as we got further into the detail of implementation and effects on registry and registrars became apparent. So there are many open issues and the important step is the staff development of implementation notes. The timing is unknown. Janis Karklins recognized that the GNSO council has used words in GAC WHOIS principles recommendations for action for study on use and misuses of WHOIS data, which is appreciated by the GAC. He is happy that staff has started compiling the data and will prepare a report. He asked about the timeline for the completion of the work and what sources will be used in compiling report. Liz Gasser confirmed that recommendations made by the GAC have been incorporated into the GNSO discussion. Staff is undertaking work to obtain information regarding the uses and potential misuses of information, the use of proxy services as it affects Whois accuracy, and Whois contractual compliance. Staff will provide additional updates on activities. There are some preparatory activities that will guide staff about additional work. Staff will be giving an update to GNSO on 4 October. Bruce Tonkin advised that conflicting draft resolutions have been circulating on the Council list regarding next steps on the WHOIS proposals, however as registries and registrars appear to be withdrawing their support for the taskforce proposal on OPAC, as modified by proposals from the WHOIS working group, he expects Council will say they can't reach an agreement. The Chair asked if the parties in debate agreed accurate information is available, was who has access to the information the primary issue. Bruce Tonkin advised that the work had stopped on accuracy until improvements were made on access control, and that many in the GNSO believe that registrants would be more willing to provide accurate information if it was not publicly available. The Chair suggested that maybe there is a kernel of agreement for drawing together the different sides.