[Privsec] WHOIS: urgent alert for Council members

[Frannie Wellings]

Something people can do to support the NCUC's WHOIS efforts...

The NCUC needs help preparing legal arguments.  Are there any privacy 
experts on this list with a knowledge of WHOIS and national data 
protection laws and a willingness to volunteer a bit of time?  Or does 
anyone know other privacy experts who aren't on this list, but might be 
able to help?

Rather than constantly being on the defensive, the NCUC's looking to put 
ideas forward to the taskforce. We lack resources though, so any donated 
brainpower would help!!!  Feel free to send me a response off list if 
you want to help or to recommend someone else who might be willing.

Thanks all,

Frannie


***
Frannie Wellings
Free Press
http://www.freepress.net

karen banks wrote:

> hi
>
> i think this refers to the current policy up for review.. (ie, 
> recommendation 1) which is here: 
> http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois-privacy/index.shtml (somewhere?)
>
> wonder if it's worth asking milton if there's anything we can do to 
> support?
>
> karen
>
>> Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 10:24:49 -0400
>> Sender: Non-Commercial User Constituency <NCUC-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
>> From: Milton Mueller <Mueller at SYR.EDU>
>> Subject: [NCUC-DISCUSS] urgent alert for Council members
>>
>> The GNSO Council will be discussing the Whois task force recommendation
>> 1 at the teleconference on Thursday 18 August, 2005 at 12:00 UTC.
>> Recommendation 1 calls for "conspicuous notice" to domain name
>> registrants about how their Whois data will be used.
>>
>> This is an urgent notice to our Council representatives to join the
>> registrars and other supportive constituencies to DEFER a VOTE on
>> Recommendation 1, until Whois is reformed to protect privacy.
>>
>> Whois Recommendation 1 was originally a good idea. However, Marc
>> Rotenberg of EPIC and others have alerted us to serious dangers. Under
>> many national laws, notification equals a waiver of one's privacy
>> rights. We have confirmed those dangers through filings by the ISP and
>> IPC constituencies.
>>
>> The conclusion of the NCUC WHOIS TF members is that there is no "good
>> faith" in this process anymore.  NCUC, ALAC, Registrars and Registries
>> wanted to work on the privacy aspects of WHOIS while giving a bit of
>> notice to registrants about what happens to their data today.  IPC,
>> ISPs and BC, on the other hand, wanted to use notice to have registrants
>> waive all privacy rights, and then stop the privacy discussion
>> altogether!
>>
>> We (TF members) ask our Council members to do anything in their power
>> to stop a vote on Rec 1 -- send it back to the TF for study of the
>> waiver problem, or table it until after the rest of the WHOIS discussion
>> under our new
>> terms of reference.
>>
>> **Please work with all your friends on the Council -- and especially
>> reach out to the Registry constituency ** --- if you know them or even
>> if you don't.  They are the swing vote here.  Their TF members
>> understand our concerns.  Please lobby and work with them on
>> alternatives to voting on Thursday.
>>
>> Otherwise, if it has to come to a vote, please vote NO loudly and
>> clearly.
>>
>>
>>
>> Dr. Milton Mueller
>> Syracuse University School of Information Studies
>> http://www.digital-convergence.org
>> http://www.internetgovernance.org
>
>
>
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