Oct, 2007 : GNSO Consideration of Proposed Changes to WHOIS

Public comments are invited via email until 00:00 UTC (17:00 PDT) on 30 October2007 on the GNSO Council's WHOIS reports and recommendations.

Submit comments to: whois-comments-2007@icann.org.

View comments at http://forum.icann.org/lists/whois-comments-2007/.

Background

A Whois taskforce convened in June 2005 completed its work and sent a finalreport to the GNSO Council in March 2007. In that report, a majorityof members endorsed a proposal called the "Operational Point of Contact" (OPOC).Under OPOC, every registrant would identify a new operational point of contactand the registrant's postal address, city, and postal code would no longerbe displayed. The operational point of contact's name and contact informationwould be displayed instead, and it would replace the administrative and technicalcontacts.

Expanding on that work, the GNSO Council in March created a Whois workinggroup 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 To examine how legitimate interests will access unpublished registrationdata; and
3. To examine whether publication of registration contact information shouldbe based on the type of registered name holder (legal vs. natural persons)or the registrant's use of a domain name.

The workinggroup's report [PDF, 213K] was published on 20 August 2007. On 6 September2007, the GNSO Council approved a resolution for further public comment onthe report with the intention to lead to a vote on the issue on 31 October2007 during the Los Angeles ICANN meeting.

The resolution called for ICANN staff to prepare a "final report" coveringthe Whois reports referenced above and called Staffoverview of Recent GNSO Whois Activities [PDF, 161K] by 11 October, 2007.Public comments are invited on both of the GNSO Council's Whois reports andrecommendations referenced above and summarized in the Final Staff Overviewof Recent GNSO WHOIS Activity of 11 October.

Please comment on the Whois Task Force and Working Group Reports, the 11 October FinalStaff overview of Recent GNSO Whois Activities [PDF, 161K] and the 11October StaffImplementation Notes on the Whois Working Group Report [PDF, 161K].

Comments will be taken until 00:00 UTC (17:00 PDT) on 30 October 2007.