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Network Solutions to Sell WHOIS Ads
Wired 2000 writes "A news article on InternetNews reports that Network Solutions plans to sell ad space on the WHOIS database, which raises the question whether NSI is allowed to profit off a database which they no longer own, particularly the highly trafficked WHOIS database. "
The problem here is that you're dead wrong.
The telco will slap you with a lawsuit so fast it'll make your head spin if you duplicat a phone book, or use it to build your own list for business purposes.
Companies such as telesurveying organizations sometimes end up using photocopied telephone book pages, but only with a waiver from the client stating that the client is liable and not the surveying org.
I got lectured to about this while in my indenture at Western Wats, years ago when i was just out of highschool, flat broke, and $5.50/hr sounded pretty good.
The companies that make these CDs with huge telephone directories go to great lengths to compile phone lists from other sources, and document those sources.
Case in point: My mother has never, ever had a telephone number in her own name, but is listed in nearly every one of those cd-rom databases, on some of them not only in Utah but also in New York and Hawaii at the numbers the family once occupied in those states.
True, the telco does sell advertising space on the cover and in the back of the phone book, but they don't make you sit through a promotional message with every 411 call, do they?
This is just like television, only you can see much further.
Visit www.askreggie.com and you'll see one of many WHOIS web page interfaces with adverts. AskReggie happens to be owned by Andover.net, who also own Slashdot.
The point? Well you have to realise that Network Solutions are talking about doing exactly the same thing; putting adverts on their WEB PAGE INTERFACE and NOT, I repeat NOT, on the actual WHOIS data itself.
So if you continue using a command-line or desktop WHOIS utility, or use the same web page outside Network Solutions that you already do, then you'll get no more or less adverts than you ever did.
In short: this is a NON-STORY.
Which makes me wonder whether the people who wrote the story and submitted it understand the difference between a WEB PAGE INTERFACE and real, proper, raw WHOIS query. FFS.
--
Andrew Oakley - www.aoakley.com
They're only planning to advertise, via banner ads, on their whois web gateway.
I don't see anything wrong with that. Whois isn't a web service, it's a service that uses the whois protocol. NSI has a gateway to it up on their page, and seeing as NSI has a quasi-monopoly on domain registration, it's a very popular page. But anyone else can create a gateway to whois just as easily, and tons of people have - for instance just about every web hosting company which registers domain names. Many other whois gateways on the web already have ads, and there shouldn't be a different policy for NSI's.
Of course, if they start limiting direct whois access or placing text ads on results, that's another story. From everything I've read, though, they're not planning to do that.
They can't prohibit others from profiting by copying the database and providing a similar service, but they have the right to profit from it themselves (if they can). The whole thing about NSI or Commerce "owning" public, factual information strikes me as absurd.
Things would get a little more complicated if they decided to disallow queries to their version of the database. That would be a somewhat different issue, though.
If you're using whois from the command line, you will likely not see those animated GIF banner ads, am I right?
So now let me ask you again -- do you really care?
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
Later tonight there will be a letter and petition for ISPs to sign on the website. The letter will be directed to the Dept of Justice and the Dept of Commerce asking them to look into this and stop NSI from acting in this fashion, and the petition will be an open petition to all registries and registrars calling for Domain Registration sites to be safe havens from this type of activity, and will spell out why.
ISPs are the the single source more responsible for funnelling domain registrations to NSI, and if another registrar caters to them, by providing a safe and easy way for ISPs to funnel their registrations through them, they will use their influence with their customers to show their dissatisfaction.
--
William X. Walsh
william@dso.net / william@dnspolicy.com
DSo Internet Services
(IDNO MEMBER)
Support the Cyberspace Association, the
constituency of Individual Domain Name Owners
http://www.idno.org
I would guess so, that's what askreggie seems to do. Hmm, askreggie is owned by andover.net also... they are buying everything and turning into MS!!!! Ahhhhhhhh!!!!
(joke)
rooooar
Sorry Rob, but the others are right - it only seems to affect queries via their web pages. I think that the 2 things which should concern us are: 1). We have to *pay* to download their ads. True it's only a small amount of extra data, but 2). who is (excuse the pun) to decide what material to allow in the form of adverts? A porn company (perhaps even the "open porn" company - I just listened to gis episode 4 for the 50th time :) might "justify" that they have every right to advertise via WHOIS. That then makes it illegal for many people (minors, those in China, etc...) to view the WHOIS database! not only that,but Ican forsee similar things to the RBL being imposed, then the sites which link to the whois database get censored for linking to it, etc... I hope this does happen because I really want NSI to go bankrupt and for the government to turn it (the WHOIS database) over to one of the non-profit groups that runs root servers (they know how to do things properly). NSI has no right to do this. This would be like the telephone company playing you an advert every time you ring 192 (directory assistance) - or whatever number it is that you guys dial in the US. Nobody's going to bother to read this so it don't matter much anyway... Jon.
http://www.jonmasters.org/
"Hey! Let's sell ad space on a government-owned database! That'll further the conception that it's our property!"
Notwork Delusions strikes again. They're rising quickly on my "companies that must die" list, joining the ranks of Microsoft, Bell Atlantic, and UUNet..
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Badly designed HTML aside, here I am at http://www.networksolutions.com/, at their whois database, and I can "Search for a Web address, NIC handle, host IP, or lastname, firstname". So let's try this out.
[Network Solutions (R) the dot com people (TM)]Home | Services | Find | Help | About Us
No match for "WWW.NETWORKSOLUTIONS.COM".
Of course, if you change the query a little, you can find it, but then shouldn't they alter that whole cutesy "Search for a web address" message? Bah.
...and didn't Sun already do that whole stupid "dot com" advertising stunt?
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.