[council] FW: Consensus policy recommendation on WHOIS service

[Bruce Tonkin]

-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Tonkin 
Sent: Thursday, 22 December 2005 4:32 PM
Subject: Consensus policy recommendation on WHOIS service

To: Chair, ICANN Board
From: Chair, GNSO Council

Hello Vint,

At the GNSO Council meeting in Vancouver on 28 November 2005, the GNSO
Council approved the following consensus policy recommendation relating
to the WHOIS service provided by gtld registries and gtld registrars by
super-majority vote.

"In order to facilitate reconciliation of any conflicts between
local/national mandatory privacy laws or regulations and applicable
provisions of the ICANN contract regarding the collection, display and
distribution of personal data via the gTLD WHOIS service, ICANN should: 

1. Develop and publicly document a procedure for dealing with the
situation in which a registrar or registry can credibly demonstrate that
it is legally prevented by local/national privacy laws or regulations
from fully complying with applicable provisions of its ICANN contract
regarding the collection, display and distribution of personal data via
the gTLD WHOIS service.

2.  Create goals for the procedure which include: 

(a) Ensuring that ICANN staff is informed of a conflict at the earliest
appropriate juncture; 

(b) Resolving the conflict, if possible, in a manner conducive to
ICANN's Mission, applicable Core Values and the stability and uniformity
of the Whois system; 

(c) Providing a mechanism for the recognition, if appropriate, in
circumstances where the conflict cannot be otherwise resolved, of an
exception to contractual obligations to those registries/registrars to
which the specific conflict applies with regard to collection, display
and distribution of personally identifiable data via the gTLD WHOIS
service; and 

(d) Preserving sufficient flexibility for ICANN staff to respond to
particular factual situations as they arise.

The GNSO recommends the ICANN staff consider the advice given in the
task force report as to a recommended procedure  (see
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/tf-final-rpt-25oct05.htm)."


I have asked the ICANN staff to complete a Council report incorporating
details of the recent vote, for consideration by the Board in its
meeting in Feburary 2006.

Regards,
Bruce Tonkin