[council] Facts about Whois
Ross Rader
ross at tucows.com
Mon Apr 10 19:47:21 UTC 2006
I thought it would be useful to share some basic facts about Whois and
Whois data. These are taken from the various registry/registrar
agreements and might be useful in terms of gaining a better
understanding of the current deliberation.
For the purpose of this discussion, I am limiting this definition to
those uses by gTLD operators. There are many other Whois based services
in use around the world (IP address registries, ccTLD managers, etc.)
The important point of understanding is the difference between the
customer transaction data that registrars must undertake to process a
customer request for a domain registration, and the Whois publishing
requirements imposed on registrars and registries by the ICANN
agreement. The current whois task force is only chartered to deal with
the policy related to the publishing mechanism.
****
1. What is whois? Whois is a simple API based protocol that provides
query access to a database of information related to domain name
registrations. Queries can be sent to a Whois server via a desktop
client using port 43, or via a web form, which may also use back-end
logic to communicate with the Whois server also via port 43. This two
types, while very similar, are referred to respectively as "Port 43" and
"Web-based" whois.
2. What is whois data? Whois data, according to the contracts, is the
data that is published via the Whois API. Currently, this data consists of;
The domain name;
The nameservers for the domain names
The name of the registrar responsible for the registration
The date of registration
The date the domain name expires
The name and postal address of the registrant
The name, postal address, e-mail address, voice telephone number, and
(where available) fax number of the technical contact; and
The name, postal address, e-mail address, voice telephone number, and
(where available) fax number of the administrative contact.
Collection of this data is undertaken per the requirements of the
ICANN-Registrar agreements, and the laws of the country in in which each
of the registrar and registrant reside.
3. What other registration data do registrars collect? Registrars
collect a lot more data than that which is required by the ICANN
contracts (see 2). For example, Registrars collect credit card
information, address information for the registrant, various opt-in and
agreements to various legal clauses, and so on. The information
registrars collect is very similar to the information that any internet
merchant collects. The collection of this additional data permits the
registrar to conduct its business and support the needs of its clients.
Collection of this data is undertaken per the requirements of the
national law in effect in the country in which each of the registrar and
registrant reside.
****
--
-rr
"Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions.
All life is an experiment.
The more experiments you make the better."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Contact Info:
Ross Rader
Director, Research & Innovation
Tucows Inc.
c. 416.828.8783
Get Started? http://start.tucows.com
My Blogware: http://www.byte.org
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