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<p class=default><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>All, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=default><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=default><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>The attached draft defines a <b>WHOIS
Privacy and Proxy Abuse Study</b> which methodically analyzes a representative
sample of gTLD domains associated with a variety of illegal/harmful Internet
activities. By measuring how often these alleged and confirmed “bad
actors” use Privacy/Proxy registrations, compared to the overall
frequency of Privacy/Proxy registrations, this study will attempt to prove or
disprove the following hypothesis:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=default><span style='font-size:11.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=default><i><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>A significant percentage of
the domain names used to conduct illegal or harmful Internet activities are
registered via Privacy or Proxy services to obscure the perpetrator’s
identity.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=default><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=default><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>This draft is based on input
proposals, refined to address several key challenges, including methods needed
to study short-lived vs. long-lived activities, enumeration of useful input
sources, and filtering of false positive reports. Suggestions are welcome; in
particular, please consider the review questions posed on page 8. The next step
will be to issue an RFP to determine study cost and feasibility by soliciting
bids from researchers to conduct this study.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=default><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=default><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Please note that a separate
study is still being drafted to measure delays associated with Privacy/Proxy
Reveal. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=default><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=default><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:red'>Please provide all
input by COB 14 May.</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt'> We will
finalize the RFP based on the input we receive.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=default><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=default><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Thanks, Liz<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b>Liz Gasster<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b>Senior Policy Counselor<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b>ICANN<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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