[registrars] Ballot Request: Adopt as Constituency Position

[Jay Westerdal]

Removal of the expiration date from the Thin Whois seems contrary to what
users look for and are most concerned about. Users check this field to know
when to renew their domain by. I would strongly object to removing that
field. It would cause mass panic and news articles on how the ICANN process
failed by removing an essential field. Hosting companyes, technical
administrators, and advisors to domain holders would all be left in the dark
as to when their client's domain would expire. Verisign has what I would
consider the ideal registry display. I would keep all fields that they
display. Before we adopt any position as radical as deleting the display of
expiration date we should reach out to domain holders and people that advise
domain holders but don't have access to the registrar account for the
domain.

On another note, I think moving to thin whois would be fine across all
gTLDs. Registries should not be in the business of displaying customer
information. Let the Registrars protect and display the thick whois.

Jay Westerdal
Name Intelligence, Inc.
http://www.nameintelligence.com  

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-registrars at gnso.icann.org
[mailto:owner-registrars at gnso.icann.org] On Behalf Of Ross Rader
Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2005 10:37 AM
To: registrars at dnso.org
Subject: [registrars] Ballot Request: Adopt as Constituency Position

Registrars;

Per Whois Task Force 123's Terms of Reference, we are required to adopt 
a position concerning the purpose of the Whois service and the purpose 
of the Registered Name Holder, Technical and Administrative contacts 
(see below for an excerpt of the terms of reference for the task force).

As a representative to this task force and with the input and assistance 
of the other representatives to this task force, I have prepared a 
policy position that I seek to have adopted by the constituency. This 
position statement is attached.

I therefore would like to make a motion as follows;

***MOTION
Whereas, the Registrar Constituency has considered a range of issues 
related to the intended and appropriate purpose of the gTLD Whois 
System, and;

Whereas, the Registrar Constituency has considered a range of issues 
related to the intended and appropriate purpose of the Registered Name 
Holder, Administrative and Technical Contacts, and;

Whereas, the Registrar Constituency seeks timely resolution of these 
matters in a consensus-based manner that takes into account the needs of 
all stakeholders including individual and corporate domain name 
registrants, the internetworking community and gTLD Registries and 
Registrars, therefore;

Be it resolved that the Registrar formally adopts the position statement 
entitled "The Purpose of the gTLD Whois System and Specific Contact 
Records" and require its task force representatives to advocate these 
positions within the Task Force and other ICANN fora as appropriate.
***ENDofMOTION

I have attached both Word and PDF versions of this document to this 
message. I will also be forwarding this draft document to the Task Force 
  as a heads up concerning our deliberations.

If you have any questions, please let me know. Your support for this 
motion would be sincerely appreciated.

-ross


Excerpt from WhoisTF123 Terms of Reference;
(1) ...the purpose of the WHOIS service in the context of ICANN's 
mission and relevant core values, international and national laws 
protecting privacy of natural persons, international and national laws
that relate specifically to the WHOIS service, and the changing nature 
of Registered Name Holders.

(2) ...the purpose of the Registered Name Holder, technical, and 
administrative contacts, in the context of the purpose of WHOIS, and the 
purpose for which the data was collected. Use the relevant definitions 
from Exhibit C of the Transfers Task force report as a starting point
(from http://www.icann.org/gnso/transfers-tf/report-exhc-12feb03.htm):

"Contact: Contacts are individuals or entities associated with domain
name records. Typically, third parties with specific inquiries or
concerns will use contact records to determine who should act upon
specific issues related to a domain name record. There are typically
three of these contact types associated with a domain name record, the
Administrative contact, the Billing contact and the Technical contact.

Contact, Administrative: The administrative contact is an individual,
role or organization authorized to interact with the Registry or
Registrar on behalf of the Domain Holder. The administrative contact
should be able to answer non-technical questions about the domain name's
registration and the Domain Holder. In all cases, the Administrative
Contact is viewed as the authoritative point of contact for the domain
name, second only to the Domain Holder.

Contact, Billing: The billing contact is the individual, role or
organization designated to receive the invoice for domain name
registration and re-registration fees.

Contact, Technical: The technical contact is the individual, role or
organization that is responsible for the technical operations of the
delegated zone. This contact likely maintains the domain name server(s)
for the domain. The technical contact should be able to answer technical
questions about the domain name, the delegated zone and work with
technically oriented people in other zones to solve technical problems
that affect the domain name and/or zone.

Domain Holder: The individual or organization that registers a specific
domain name. This individual or organization holds the right to use that
specific domain name for a specified period of time, provided certain
conditions are met and the registration fees are paid. This person or
organization is the "legal entity" bound by the terms of the relevant
service agreement with the Registry operator for the TLD in question."