In case people are not aware, it appears that ICANN are considering
vamping whois information, based on a survey that they have up on their
site. From the questions that they are asking, it sounds like they are
thinking of standardising the format for whois information. Also, as per
current ICANN policy, there is no mention of including reseller
information in the possible expanded output, though there are 'additional
comments' areas where this could be requested.
The survey is at http://www.icann.org/dnso/whois-survey-en-10jun01.htm if
anyone is interested in checking it out.
One of the worrying trends that seem common in the survey is the
possibility of expanding the searchability of whois information. While
this would be good from some aspects (ie, trying to find all of the
domains using a given nameserver for updating), if this is done, it would
not be good from a privacy point-of-view. This would also likely allow
for relatively simple DOS attacks of whois servers; just throw a bunch of
large queries at the registrars that you don't like (but then there aren't
any, are there? :), and watch their databases start to thrash, and a
signifigant portion of their network bandwidth being used up...
Take care,
Mark.
On Mon, 25 Jun 2001, David Harris wrote:
>
> Glad to hear that this is in the works.
>
> > 3) Ability for end user to opt-out (via manage) from having your
> > information in their whois (in case you do something nefarious, like put
> > advertising information there)
>
> I think this provision is unnecessary. I don't think the customer wants to
> worry about that level of detail and it would lead to confusion. And anyway,
> a rouge reseller would just comment this ability out of the scripts.
>
> I'd suggest that OpenSRS create some clear guidelines about what kind of
> information is acceptable for whois branding and then enforce that
> themselves. Take complaints at [EMAIL PROTECTED] and deal with it like
> any other compliance issue.
>
> David
>
>
>
>
