draft gac whois principles text...

[Milton Mueller]

It would be important to get governmental participants in the GAC to
question this process. First, how can this US-Australian document be
declared "public policy", even if it is ultimately adopted by the GAC?
To establish public policy, governments must negotiate a treaty or
convention, and then it must be ratified by national legislatures. The
idea that one US Commerce Department official and a couple of mid-level
bureaucrats in Australia can set global public policy is pretty
ridiculous. But they may get away with it unles other governments
challenge them.

>>> Carlos Afonso <ca at RITS.ORG.BR> 9/21/2006 9:56:49 PM >>>
It seems GAC's working group headed by NTIA is keen to totally open
WHOIS data -- not surprising, of course. Is this going to be the
position of the GAC?

--c.a.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: draft gac whois principles text
From: "Suzanne Sene" <ssene at ntia.doc.gov>
Date: Thu, September 21, 2006 1:02 am

** High Priority **

hello everyone, as the convenor of gac working group 1, i am pleased
to
forward the text of the draft gac whois principles regarding the
purpose
and use of whois data, prepared by our gac colleagues from australia
(ashley cross and paul szyndler).

this draft text is the culmination of both internal gac discussions
and
external public sessions the gac has organized since 2005 to address
the
public policy aspects of the purpose and use of whois data.

during our most recent meeting in marrakech, the gac plenary agreed to
finalize the principles at the sao paulo meeting in December, 2006.

to meet the December deadline for gac plenary approval of the text,
all
gac members are requested to submit comments via the working group 1
discus thread on whois according to the following timeline:

October 13:  submission of first round of comments

October 27:  revised text circulated

November 2:  submission of second round of comments

November 27:  final version of text circulated

we will discuss the text during the working group 1 meeting in sao
paulo
on December 3, followed by discussion and adoption by the gac plenary.

please note the availability of background documents on the gac discus
site under the whois heading, and feel free to contact me should you
have any questions.

thanks in advance for your attention and support for this gac priority
project.  best regards, suz.

Suzanne R. Sene
Senior Policy Advisor
NTIA/OIA
202-482-3167 (ph)
202-482-1865 (fax)

--- text version of attached document ---



DRAFT

GAC PRINCIPLES REGARDING THE PURPOSE
AND USE OF WHOIS DATA

Presented by the Governmental Advisory Committee
December 6, 2006

Preamble

1.1    The purpose of this document is to identify a set of general
public policy principles related to the operation and management of the

generic top level domain (gTLD) WHOIS service.

1.2These principles have been developed in consultation with privacy,
law enforcement, consumer and intellectual property bodies within each

GAC member government.

Objective of this document

2.1These principles are intended to guide the work within ICANN
pertaining to the WHOIS service and to inform the ICANN Board of the
consensus views of the GAC regarding the range of public policy uses of

WHOIS data.

Public Policy Aspects of WHOIS Data

3.1   The GAC believes that the WHOIS database serves many legitimate
purposes, including:

1.Assisting national law enforcement agencies, both civil and criminal,

in resolving cases that involve the use of the Internet (such as child

pornography, violent crimes, wire fraud, cyber crime, consumer fraud,
identity theft, phishing, and other violations of consumer privacy and

data security);

2.Combating intellectual property infringement and theft through the
identification of cybersquatters, trademark infringers, counterfeiters,

and copyright pirates;

3.Supporting Internet network operators responsible for the operation,

security, and stability of the Internet;

4.Protecting the rights of consumers by facilitating their
identification of legitimate online businesses; and

5.   Assisting businesses in investigating fraud, phishing and other
violations of   law affecting their business interests and the
interests
of their customers.


3.2 While the GAC recognizes the complexity posed by such a broad range

of public policy uses of WHOIS data, the GAC believes that the policy
development process regarding the definition, purpose and operation of

gTLD WHOIS services needs to reflect the interests and concerns of this

broad range of users of WHOIS data.

Principles Applicable to WHOIS Data

4.1   The GAC believes that a fully functional WHOIS service should:

1.Satisfy the traditional and ongoing goal of ensuring the security and

stability of the Internet;

2.Facilitate continued, timely and cross-border access to accurate
WHOIS
data for law enforcement, intellectual property rights protection,
consumer protection, and compliance and regulatory purposes;

3.Provide the necessary level of data regarding domain name registrants

and registrations to any user who seeks it, including, for example,
civil and criminal law enforcement officials, online consumers, network

operators, intellectual property rights holders, and registries and
registrars; and

4.Consider national laws and global agreements associated with trade
practices, consumer protection, intellectual property rights and
copyright protection, and privacy protection.