[registrars] Registrar statement for law enforcement at ICANN this week

[Nevett, Jonathon]

Let's discuss the wording.  Thanks.  Jon

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-registrars at gnso.icann.org
[mailto:owner-registrars at gnso.icann.org] On Behalf Of Bruce Tonkin
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2006 1:11 PM
To: Registrars Constituency
Subject: [registrars] Registrar statement for law enforcement at ICANN
this week

Hello All,

There are many representatives from the law enforcement community
attending this ICANN meeting.

They raised a range of concerns about what might happen to WHOIS based
on a recent decision at the GNSO Council.

I recommend that registrars sign on to the attached statement to send
back in return.

This can be issued formally at the GNSO public forum tomorrow.

Please send an email to the list if you agree with the following.

Regards,
Bruce Tonkin


We the undersigned registrars wish to confirm that we will continue to
collect the data (commonly called WHOIS data) as required by the
registrar accreditation agreement (all of which is currently displayed
to the general public), and will continue to provide access to such data
by law enforcement through appropriate processes that support the
privacy protection for the Personal Data of natural persons.
Registrars store this information for the lifetime of their agreement
with ICANN plus an additional 3 years.   Registrars are concerned that
the current requirement for general public access to this information
can cause problems for Personal Data of natural persons and this is an
area of current work.

Registrars believe there should be more effective mechanisms than the
current general public access mechanisms for legitimate access to
Personal Data.   

Registrars further believe that protecting Personal Data from general
public access may result in more accurate information being provided by
registrants at the time of registration.

Registrars also note that other useful data such as the IP (Internet
Protocol) address used by a registrant when registering a domain name
and credit information is also stored.  This information is also
available for law enforcement access through appropriate processes.   

IP (Internet Protocol) address information is perhaps the most useful in
actually identifying parties of interest to law enforcement.  Please
note that it is rare to find Personal Data of natural persons in the IP
address WHOIS registries.   The IP address information can be used to
identify the relevant Internet Service Provider (ISP) or
telecommunications company responsible for the IP address through the IP
(Internet Protocol) WHOIS services.  Law enforcement can then use
existing legal processes to obtain the physical location of a computer
connected to the Internet that may be hosting illegal content, or the
physical location an internet user using this computer, through
accessing ISP and telecommunications information that is not available
for public access.