In message <280ebc89-783c-48df-a93e-d8a539a9d...@delong.com>, Owen DeLong <o...@delong.com> wrote:
> On Dec 6, 2019, at 07:46 , Caleb Olumuyiwa Ogundele <muyiwaca...@gmail.com> > wrote: >>Even if you are not familiar with Mauritius law, the EU GDPR which is >>more popular should tell you the implication of revealing a WHOIS >>database to a non-state prosecutorial actor like yourself who does not >>have a court warrant to see the redacted sections you seek. Please >>correct me if I'm wrong in my legal analysis of your request. > >Whois is data that is published generally, so your comments here about >DPR don't really apply. > >Such WHOIS dumps are available from RIPE, so I don't think it is >a GDPR issue at all. I am in agreement with Owen on this. The argument regarding the denial of access to unredacted copies of the WHOIS data base based on some alleged legal privacy issues is quite obviously not a reasonable or plausible one, not only because RIPE does not impose such a restriction but also, and more obviously, the argument makes no sense on the face of it because individual unredacted records may be obtained by anyone any time, just by querying the AFRINIC WHOIS data base using the -B option. If there were any serious legal problem with AFRINIC revealing unredacted contact information for resources holders, then even WHOIS queries for individual unredacted records (-B) would necessarily be disallowed. And they aren't, so obviously, there is not a serious legal issue here. On that basis, I stand by my assertion that Jan Vermeulen and myself have been stonewalled by AFRINIC staff, based on nothing at all, when we requested researcher access to the unredacted AFRINIC data base. And I say again, we were given no reason for the refusal to provide this information. Neither any legal reason nor any community-ratified policy for this refusal was cited as the basis for the refusal at the time. To make matters even more bizzarely comical, as is the case with all of the other RIRs, AFRINC has on its web site a special form that must be filled out in order to obtain unredacted copies of the entire WHOIS data base: https://afrinic.net/support/general-queries/how-can-i-request-for-bulk-whois-data Researchers must fill out this form, giving a lot of personal data, and then must FAX or email it to AFRINIC, which we did. (Essentially the same procedure is used by all five of the RIRs for any party wishing to obtain access to unredacted copies of their respective WHOIS data bases.) Note that access to a *redacted* copy of the WHOIS data base for any one of the five RIRs generally requires none of this fooling around. Anyone who wants redacted copies of these data bases can just use anonymous FTP and fetch them directly from the five RIR FTP servers. (We have done that also.) One only needs to fill out the form and go through all of this extra rigamorole if one specifically wants to obtain an unredacted copy of the WHOIS data base. Given that, you can readily imagine our shock and surprise when we filled out the form, and then FAXed it back to AFRINIC HQ, only to be told that despite our having jumped through ALL of the required procedural hoops, we would only be given the exact same (redacted) copy of the data base that we had already downloaded previously, via anonymous FTP. Any random party from anywhere in the world can, with no special prior arrangements, fetch a copy of the redacted AFRINIC WHOIS data base from ftp.afrinic.net. Given that fact, and given that this is all that AFRINC will give you, no matter what you do, someone is going to have to explain to me the reasons for the existance of the official AFRINIC web page linked to above. Why even have a complicated special procedure if the people who do all of the steps of that procedure just end up with the exact same un-special access privileges as they had before they did any of this? It makes no sense on the face of it, unless... I assert again that we have been very deliberately stonewalled by AFRINIC when we requested an unredacted copy of the data base. We do not know if we were selectively targeted for this stonewalling by one or more AFRINIC staff members, perhaps including but not limited to Mr. Byaruhanga and/or those working in collusion with him, or if there is, nowadays a general stonewalling, by AFRINIC staff, of all requests for any and all information where staff members feel that they can get away with it. But I can definitely say that, as of this moment, we still do not have access to the unredacted AFRINIC WHOIS data base and we also still have no explanation whatsoever for *why* we don't. And I still do need that access in order to fully complete my research. The proper response here is as simple as it is obvious. I call on the new CEO, Mr. Eddy Kayihura, to take command of the situation, and to immediately grant reasonable and confidential researcher access to the entire unredacted AFRINIC WHOIS data base to myself and Jan Vermeulen. We have already filed out and returned to AFRINIC HQ all of the necessary paperwork in order to qualify for such access. Regards, rfg _______________________________________________ Community-Discuss mailing list Community-Discuss@afrinic.net https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss