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ICANN Punts on WHOIS Privacy Proposal
An anonymous reader writes "The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has essentially put off consideration of a proposal that would have dissolved a requirement that domain name registrars collect and display personal information about people who register Web site names. Privacy activists said the WHOIS database has become a data-mining dream for marketers and spammers, to say nothing of stalkers and harassers. Companies representing some of the world's biggest brand names appear to have prevailed, arguing that any change to the current system would interfere with law enforcement investigations and trademark disputes. In the end, ICANN voted 7-17 to table the issue in favor of further studies on the privacy impact of the WHOIS database."
Agreed... I can find out who owns any house/building in the U.S. and I can find out who owns any company because it's a matter of public record.
T.V. and radio stations have to identify themselves... I can't think of any good reason a domain owner shouldn't have to.
Individuals have a right to privacy... companies and organizations do not.
I sued Moniker for providing WHOIS privacy for e360 and Linhardt (http://www.barbieslapp.com/spam/e360/timeline.htm) along with e360 and Linhardt for illegal spamming.
Not only does this hide the information on the spammer, it also prevents you from determining if the 1000s of domains are one spammer to 1000 different spammers. That can be avoid by saying, Moniker Privacy Services, Client 12. Where 12 is some form of account number that says that may not relate to the actual system account number, but enable to the viewer to determine that there are XX domains by the same person.
Now lets take this out of the spam arena. I have a business of selling widgets. I also have a blog that 'reviews' widgets, and I have three blogs pretending to be 3 separate people bitching about X Widgets where X is one of my three competitors.
Fight Spammers!