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<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span
style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Calibri"><i><b>We submit
the following comments (below and attached) to the EWG
on the question of Why is the Whois Broken.<br>
</b></i></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span
style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Calibri"><i><b>Sincerely,</b></i><i><b><br>
</b></i> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span
style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Calibri">Kathy
Kleiman<br>
Tamir Israel<br>
Milton Mueller<br>
Roy Balleste<br>
Robin Gross<br>
Avri Doria<br>
Marie-Laure Lemineur<br>
Peter Green<br>
Edward Morris <br>
All members of the NCSG</span></i></b><br>
</span></i></b></p>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span
style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Calibri"><br>
*************************</span></i></b><font face="Calibri,
sans-serif"><font size="4"><i><b><br>
Why
is the Whois Broken?</b></i></font></font>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="4">We
in the NCSG respectfully raise the question that the EWG
asserts in
its Executive Summary that the Whois is broken, but has not
told us
</font></font><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="4"><i><b>why
</b></i></font></font><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="4">the
Whois is broken or </font></font><font face="Calibri,
sans-serif"><font size="4"><i><b>what
went wrong </b></i></font></font><font face="Calibri,
sans-serif"><font size="4">with
it.</font></font><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="4"><b> </b></font></font><font face="Calibri,
sans-serif"><font size="4">Accordingly,
the EWG process appears to be missing the diagnosis of the
problem</font></font><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="4"><i><b>,
leading to a proposed Interim solution that we
respectfully submit is
fundamentally flawed for making the basic underlying
problems of the
existing Whois </b></i></font></font><font face="Calibri,
sans-serif"><font size="4"><i><u><b>worse</b></u></i></font></font><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="4"><i><b>,
not better.</b></i></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="4">From
our perspective, as Registrants and the group that represents
the
millions of noncommercial and nonprofit organizations, small
and
large, in the ICANN process, the Whois problems clearly
include:</font></font></p>
<ol>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="4">Over-Collection of information (address in
particular is completely unnecessary when there are better
and faster ways to contact the Registrants via email and
phone)</font></font></p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="4">Over-Publication of information (publication of
Whois data to anyone who wants it for any purpose –
regardless of legal proof for disclosure)</font></font></p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="4">Collection of personal data about people in
organizations, businesses, hobby groups, nonprofits and
individuals that is personal in nature and protected by
law including name, physical address, phone numbers (
including otherwise unpublished cell phone numbers) and
email addresses (also otherwise unpublished), all data
protected by law in many countries, including all with
data protection laws (countries now spanning Europe, Asia
and North American, including the UK, Germany, France,
Italy, S. Korea, Japan and Canada.</font></font></p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="4">Exposure of domain name Registrants, by virtue of
the publication of this data to all (and its availability
to law enforcement and hostile governments) to
harassments, threats, intimidation and violence by virtue
of their speech online, not their threat to the security
and stability of the Internet and domain name system
(DNS). </font></font> </p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="4">Use of the Whois data outside of original scope
and purpose. The original collection of Whois data was for
technical reasons, e.g, to rapidly find a contact to help
resolve a technical problem of the domain name. That’s a
purpose within the scope and mission of ICANN. The
expansion of the Whois (or any other name giving to the
re-packaged data) to solve, resolves, threaten and exploit
any type of Internet domain name speaker for any type of
reason goes far beyond the technical mission and scope of
ICANN into a worldwide content regulator and business
licensor. That’s not what we established ICANN in 1999 to
do, and we urge the EWG to reevaluate accordingly.</font></font></p>
</li>
</ol>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="4">The
unlimited access to Whois data – and the newly defined and
proposed
dramatically expanded new gTLD directory services data –
allows
unlimited abuse of the Registrant data including for stalking,
spamming, harassment, intimidation, browbeating and threats
against
Registrants having everything to do with content of the
Registrant’s
communication or attractiveness of the Registrant’s name.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font
size="4"><i><b>Before
the EWG embraces such a departure from the purpose of
Whois, it must
a) review and thoroughly understand the abuse of Whois
data today
(why the Whois is broken from a Registrants perspective),
sort out
and state precisely what its purposes for operating are,
and what
solutions must be taken to avoid making the matter worse.
</b></i></font></font>
</p>
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