It appears that NSI is no longer asserting ownership of the individual records, but only of the database as a whole: "Compilation, repackaging, dissemination, or other use of the WHOIS database in its entirety, or a substantial portion thereof, is not allowed without NSI's prior written permission."
The restriction that NSI began attaching in May said: "You agree that you will not reproduce, sell, transfer, or modify any of the data presented in response to your search request, or use of [sic] any such data for commercial purpose, without the prior express written permission of Network Solutions."
So in fact this seems to be a step back towards open records. Now, whether their claim that use of the entire database is "not allowed" has any legal force is something a lawyer would have to answer. They don't explicitly claim copyright, except with the "All rights reserved" statement and my memory is that the phone companies failed with similar "compilation copyrights" on white pages in the past.
One example of "open source" thinking in science is the increasing importance of preprints over journal publication. Traditional scientific communication relies on institutionally sponsored (commercial or nonprofit) journals publishing papers that have been carefully vetted by referees. But in many fields (including my own, astrophysics) this system has been almost completely supplanted in recent years by electronic distribution of unrefereed preprints through the server at http://xxx.lanl.gov/. The questions raised by this shift should sound familiar to open source software advocates. For example, how can quality of product be maintained in a system without identifiable, responsible publishers? My own experience suggests that quality is enhanced by widespread distribution of results before publication, for exactly the same reason that distribution of source results in better code: lots of eyes looking for bugs (or neglected references, etc.). Paul Ginsparg has written thoughtfully about these issues, for example at http://xxx.lanl.gov/blurb/pg96unesco.html .
Slashdot Mirror
It appears that NSI is no longer asserting ownership of the individual records, but only
of the database as a whole: "Compilation, repackaging, dissemination, or other use of the WHOIS database in its entirety, or a substantial portion thereof, is not allowed without NSI's prior written permission."
The restriction that NSI began attaching in May said: "You agree that you will not reproduce, sell, transfer, or modify any of the data presented in response to your search request, or use of [sic] any such data for commercial purpose, without the prior express written permission of Network Solutions."
So in fact this seems to be a step back towards open records. Now, whether their claim that use of the entire database is "not allowed" has any legal force is something a lawyer would have to answer. They don't explicitly claim copyright, except with the "All rights reserved" statement and my memory is that the phone companies failed with similar "compilation copyrights" on white pages in the past.
One example of "open source" thinking in science is the increasing importance of preprints over journal publication. Traditional scientific communication relies on institutionally sponsored (commercial or nonprofit) journals publishing papers that have been carefully vetted by referees. But in many fields (including my own, astrophysics) this system has been almost completely supplanted in recent years by electronic distribution of unrefereed preprints through the server at http://xxx.lanl.gov/. The questions raised by this shift should sound familiar to open source software advocates. For example, how can quality of product be maintained in a system without identifiable, responsible publishers? My own experience suggests that quality is enhanced by widespread distribution of results before publication, for exactly the same reason that distribution of source results in better code: lots of eyes looking for bugs (or neglected references, etc.). Paul Ginsparg has written thoughtfully about these issues, for example at http://xxx.lanl.gov/blurb/pg96unesco.html .