A Special Thanks to NCUC and EPIC -- and My Update from Marrakech

[KathrynKL at AOL.COM]

All:
I wanted to share my update to the Constituency on Marrakech, thanks to NCUC 
for the travel funding, and a special thanks to Marc Rotenberg and the 
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) for a range of support on my efforts on 
the Whois work before/in Marrakech.

Background:
As you have probably guessed, the Whois Task Force takes a ton of time.  We 
have met since 2002, sometimes once a week and sometimes once every two weeks, 
by telephone with the Task Force.  These meetings last from 1 to 1 ½ hours and 
they involve not only time on the call, but preparation ahead of time, 
research, report writing and editing, and innumerable emails and calls.  

On behalf of NCUC, I have prepared spreadsheets of privacy laws, reports 
summarizing comments of the Data Protection Commissioners and their organizations, 
organized speakers at Rome and Vancouver, and worked with the many members on 
the TF on wording, report writing, editing, positions and compromises (See 
NCUC’s Archives page).  Of course, the work continued at a feverish pace before 
and during Marrakech! 

Making My Work Possible:
So I want to thank those who supported the work for this trip and provided a 
summary (below) of work done so that we can discuss and plan for the future. 

The NCUC generously provided a travel grant that covered my airplane ticket 
to Marrakech – thank you!  

An additional grant from EPIC covered many other expenses -- hotel, meals, 
local transportation – and provided funds for some time for preparations for the 
Marrakech meeting.  I would like to extend a huge thanks to Marc Rotenberg 
and EPIC, for the grant, and also for the time and guidance they provided as I 
prepared for Marrakech.  

(Note:  EPIC wrote a seminal letter on Whois for the debate just before the 
GNSO Council decision in April – if you have not seen it, it is the best 
argument I know for privacy in the Whois – to protect both personal privacy and 
freedom of speech and expression  -- 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/whois-comments/msg00042.html.)

Work Done:
Before Marrakech, we knew that the discussions on privacy by the Government 
Advisory Committee (the GAC) would be key.  It seemed to me (and others) that 
the GAC should be strongly divided on the issue of privacy in the Whois 
database.  Why weren’t the EU Countries strongly supporting some privacy in the 
Whois?  My thought was that their Data Protection Commissioners – all government 
officials – were purposely NOT invited to the GAC meetings (the one meeting with 
Dr. Alexander Dix, the Berlin Data Protection Commissioner for Vancouver was 
canceled at the last minute).  We need more input and more dialogue.

Marc Rotenberg supported the effort to reach out to Data Protection 
Commissions around the world.  Some who I wrote to, e.g., Mr. Giovanni Buttarelli of 
Italy and Ms. Stephanie Perrin of Canada, have spoken at past ICANN meetings (on 
my/NCUC’s invitations).  Others, we thought, would be interested and 
concerned about the Whois issues. 

Response:
I am so happy to say that the Data Protection leaders responded!  As soon as 
I arrived in Marrakech, the major letter being discussed came from Mr. Peter 
Schaar, Germany’s Data Protection Commissioner and Chairman of the Article 29 
Working Party (created under EU Data Protection law to include all EU Data 
Protection Commissioners)!   ICANN staff printing out his important letter and 
distributed it circulated to the ICANN Board, to the GAC, to staff, to the Whois 
Task Force, and to others.  He is very concerned about privacy in the Whois 
(and strongly supports the GNSO Council’s Purpose of Whois). 

Many other important letters too – from the Belgian Commission de la 
Protection de la Vie Privee, the American Library Association, the Canadian Internet 
Policy and Public Interest Clinic, the Association for Computing Machinery – 
and of course, lots from intellectual property owners and their organizations.  
All of these are a great read – and provided a strong base for information and 
a much more balanced discussion ‘in Marrakech!  They are posted at ICANN’s 
Correspondence page --- http://www.icann.org/correspondence/.

Conclusion: 
That’s my news from Marrakech.  New, important and timely voices joined the 
discussion.  But the work is not over.  If the GNSO Council’s Purpose of Whois 
is allowed to stand (and I hope it is!), then the next debate is on Access to 
Data formerly public and to be private.  That will involve research, 
negotiations and untold hours of work with law enforcement, data protection, 
intellectual property – and the Registries and Registrars who will be asked to respond 
to the requests.  The Whois Conference in Brazil in December will be a 
wonderful opportunity to share any progress we are able to make. 

So a brief appeal:  (1) If you/your organization have funds to share to help 
the work on the Whois debate, please let me, Carlos and Milton know.  

(2) If you/your organization know your GAC representatives, would you be 
willing to set up some time for the  NCUC Whois TF members to talk with them about 
Whois?   

Regards and thanks,
Kathy

p.s. I will be out of town at a wedding for the next few days, but look 
forward to continuing the work and the challenges in Whois ahead. 


 
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