[ga] Wimpish/gutless? - ICANN Cracks Down on Invalid WHOIS Data

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

All former DNSO GA members or other interested stakeholders/users,

  Seems the ICANN BoD and staff are using more bluster than
substance in handeling WHOIS data that is in error..
See: http://internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3334181
March 31, 2004
ICANN Reports On WHOIS Inaccuracies
By Jim Wagner

Excerpts:

The WHOIS database is a list of registered owners for every top-level
domain (TLD) name governed by the Marina del Ray, Calif., organization
 -- .com, .net, .org, .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name and 
.pro. Registrars, the companies who sell the domain names, are under 
contract to ensure the contact information regarding the domain
registration is correct.

But for years, the WHOIS database has been plagued with inaccuracies,
likely thanks to people with quasi-legal or illegal enterprises 
headquartered on the Internet who are trying to avoid detection. 
While registrars automate the forms to get people signed up and on
the Internet, there is no automated process to ensure the information is
correct.

The situation came to a head in May 2002, when Federal Trade
Commissioner J. Howard Beales III, director of the Bureau Of Consumer 
Protection, said the many inaccuracies were preventing his agency 
from stopping illegal operations being conducted through the
Internet.

"We cannot easily sue fraudsters if we cannot find them," he complained
to a House panel at the time.

What the FTC and others found was that while the owners of Internet
fraud sites were leaving legitimate emails, the contact information 
that would lead to a real-world arrest was being left out. The report 
confirms that: It said that 54 percent of the complaints dealt with 
missing or incorrect mailing addresses; another 49 percent had bogus 
phone numbers.

.......

Each of the 192 ICANN-accredited registrars is under contract to provide
"accurate and reliable contact details and promptly correct and update 
them during the term of the registered name registration," the
boilerplate contract reads. Failure to take adequate steps to correct 
the errors would result in a material breach of contract. What this 
means for the registrar community remains to be seen.

========== end of excerpts ============

Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 134k members/stakeholders strong!)
"Be precise in the use of words and expect precision from others" -
    Pierre Abelard

"If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B;
liability depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by
P: i.e., whether B is less than PL."
United States v. Carroll Towing  (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947]
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