[announce] FYI - Community Experiences with the InterNIC Whois Data Problem Reports System

["GNSO SECRETARIAT" <gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[To: ga[at]gnso.icann.org; announce[at]gnso.icann.org]
[To: liaison6c[at]gnso.icann.org; council[at]gnso.icann.org]

FYI the following report has been published by ICANN.

Community Experiences with the InterNIC Whois Data Problem Reports System
http://www.icann.org/whois/wdprs-report-final-31mar04.htm

Extract from the report:

Introduction
The following is a report summarizing ICANN's experience with the operation
of the Whois Data Problem Report system at InterNIC.net
<http://reports.internic.net/cgi/rpt_whois/rpt.cgi>. This report is being
published pursuant to Section II.C.10.a of Amendment 6 to the ICANN/DOC
Memorandum of Understanding, providing:
ICANN shall publish a report no later than March 31, 2004, and annually
thereafter, providing statistical and narrative information on community
experiences with the InterNIC WHOIS Data Problem Reports system. The report
shall include statistics on the number of WHOIS data inaccuracies reported
to date, the number of unique domain names with reported inaccuracies, and
registrar handling of the submitted reports. The narrative information shall
include an evaluation of the impact of the WHOIS Data Problem Reports system
on improved accuracy of WHOIS data.
<http://www.icann.org/general/amend6-jpamou-17sep03.htm>

Whois data for the generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) includes information
about the registrant, administrative contact, technical contact, and
nameservers associated with each domain name. This information is used for a
variety of important purposes, including identifying and verifying online
merchants, investigations by consumer protection and other law enforcement
authorities, determining whether a domain name is available for
registration, identifying the source of spam e-mail, enforcement of
intellectual property rights, addressing cyber-attacks, and otherwise
resolving technical network issues. Whois services have been available on
the Internet since the early 1980s, and continue to be broadly used.
According to an online survey of over 3000 participants (businesses,
governments, ISPs, registrars, individuals, and non-commercial
organizations) conducted in 2001 by the ICANN Domain Name Supporting
Organization
<http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/whoisTF/20020625.TFwhois-report.htm>,
Internet users broadly consider accurate Whois data to be important and
support measures to improve its accuracy.

GNSO Secretariat