Whois: Watch out for that "White List"

May 2004

ICANN's revision of its Whois policy is reaching a critical phase. After numerous deadline extensions, the three task forces are scheduled to submit their final reports May 28.

There is the potential for great progress here, but there is also a strong possibility that the whole reform effort will be undercut and rendered meaningless by the creation of a so-called "White List" that would give the IPR lawyers free rein to all Whois data merely by asking for it.

During the WHOIS review process, the forces of privacy protection and individual rights have made substantial headway, due to a combination of pressure from the registrars (especially European ones), European data protection officials, the Noncommercial Users Constituency, and the ALAC. But there are strong vested interests at work.

By permitting (and even requiring) Whois data to be available to intellectual property monitoring firms for several years, ICANN has fostered the creation of commercial information services based on unlimited access to whois data. It has created an entire generation of IPR lawyers who believe that they have a God-given right to rummage through all domain name holders' contact data at any time, for any reason.