[gnso-rds-pdp-wg] Some reg'n data I think necessary (was Re: GNSO Next-Gen RDS PDP Working Group teleconference)

[James Galvin]

On 20 Mar 2016, at 13:16, Andrew Sullivan wrote:

> On Sun, Mar 20, 2016 at 09:30:41AM -0500, Carlton Samuels wrote:
>
>
>> Is there a need for the collection of registration data, and, to
>> what end?
>
>
> It is important for operators on the Internet to be able to contact
> operators of other domains, in order to deal with abuse, network
> misconfiguration, and so forth.

Andrew,

If the starting point is that the purpose of registration data is to 
support the operation of a domain name on the Internet, then I’m 
supportive of your list and the explanations.

However, I do not believe this is the cornerstone purpose of 
registration data.  As you suggested in your message, others could come 
up with similar lists based on their purported purpose of registration 
data.  The EWG report did a good job of cataloguing various purposes of 
registration data, i.e., purposes of registration data that exist today.

I believe the question facing this group is which purpose is the primary 
or cornerstone purpose of registration data?  A corollary question then 
becomes, which additional purposes of registration data are to be 
collectively and officially declared to be the full purpose of 
registration data?

In SAC054, the SSAC proposed a data model for registration data that 
asserted the primary purpose of registration data was to support the 
lifecycle of a domain name.  This data model included the operational 
elements you describe in your message.  In retrospect (speaking as an 
SSAC member who supported the data model at the time), I do not think 
these operational elements are part of the cornerstone essential 
elements required to support the lifecycle of a domain name.  The only 
elements you need are contact information since not all domain names are 
“operational”.

The next discussion then becomes which contact elements you need, since 
as has been pointed out by others already, not all contact information 
is created equal.  Further, do I need to collect more than one type of 
contact information (postal, phone number, email, etc.)?  I would assert 
that in this model you don’t need billing information since a 
registrar could just reach out at the end of each term to collect the 
next fee.

And as long as we’re into this conversation, an alternate view is I 
don’t need contact information at all because all I really need is 
billing information, so I can just collect the fee at each renewal time. 
  This model could work if there was also a terms of use policy that 
said if there is ever a “problem” with your domain name and you can 
not be contacted then you lose your domain name.

In summary, my question to the group: Is the purpose of registration 
data to support the operation of a domain name on the Internet?  Or 
perhaps the primary purpose is to support the lifecycle of the 
registration of a domain name?  The corollary question could then be 
what other purposes do we want to include as the “full purpose” of 
registration data?

Jim