[council] Copy of notes used in the WHOIS discussion in Wellington

["Bruce Tonkin" <Bruce.Tonkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello All,

Here is a copy of the notes I used in Wellington to encourage an
understanding of the implications of the WHOIS formulations and
stimulate discussion.   I have added some headings to assist following
the text below.

I attempted to summarise the comments from the Council members during
the discussion, but you should also refer to the transcript for the full
discussion:
http://www.icann.org/meetings/wellington/captioning-gnso-29mar06.htm 

Note I did a short search on the ICANN website, and couldn't find any
basic DNS tutorial information.  This is clearly something that would be
worthwhile - ie some basic technical tutorials on DNS, IP addressing,
DNSSEC, IDNs etc.   There were some presentations by Andrew McLaughlin
some years ago - but they were really just about the naming hierarchy
rather than how the names are resolved to IP addresses.

Regards,
Bruce Tonkin


WHOIS formulations:
====================

Common part:  "The purpose of the gTLD Whois service is to provide
information sufficient to contact a responsible party for a particular
gTLD domain name who can resolve, or reliably pass on data to a party
who can resolve:

Formulation 1:
(1) issues related to the configuration of the records associated with
the domain name within a DNS nameserver."

Alternatively

Formulation 2:
(2) technical, legal or other issues related to the registration
 or use of a domain name."


Today the WHOIS service provides (amongst other data elements)
==============================================================
(see section 3.3.1  of
http://www.icann.org/registrars/ra-agreement-17may01.htm )

The name and postal address of the Registered Name Holder;

The name, postal address, e-mail address, voice telephone number, and
(where available) fax number of the technical contact and administrative
contact for the Registered Name; and



Some definitions:
=================

A domain name is an identifier.

Typical process (very simplified) for converting a domain name into an
Internet destination (accessed via its IP address):

(1)     Start with domain name (e.g example.com)

(2)     Ask .com nameserver for the name of the DNS nameserver (a
computer) for example.com.

(3)     .com nameserver responds with the name of the DNS nameserver 
(e.g ns.example.com)

(4)     Ask ns.example.com for information about example.com

(5)     Ns.example.com may respond with some records such as:

a.      A records (with IP address of DESTINATION)
b.      MX records (information about DESTINATION for sending mail)





The Registered Name Holder may be "responsible" for the existence of a
domain name.   Typically technical people can make changes to the
configuration of the domain name that defines what the domain name links
to or where email will be delivered.   A Registered name Holder may
order services such as website hosting or email from a service provider
and ask the service provider to associate a domain name with these
services (note that it is not required to use a domain name), and the
service provider sets the nameserver for the domain name, and/or sets
the DNS records within the nameserver associated with the domain name.



Use of a domain name
====================

Billions of people may use a domain name

Some examples:

(a)     A web browser may use a domain name to find the location of a
website.  The web browser "looks up the DNS" to find the IP address of
the computer that is hosting the website.    The website operator may or
may  not have any association with the domain name holder.

(b) A website may use a domain name to hyperlink to another website.
The web browser "looks up the DNS" to find the IP address of the
computer that is hosting the "other" website.

(b)     An email client may use a domain name to indicate the
destination of an email.   The email software "uses the DNS" to find the
IP address of the computer that is the destination of the email.   That
computer in turn will put the email into the mailbox of the intended
recipient of the email.


The WHOIS service today only tells you who is responsible for the domain
name record.   It is the first link in a chain.   Often the registered
name holder has little or no control over the DNS records in the
nameserver that is at the end of the first link in a chain.   A
registered name holder may give control of a domain name to a service
provider, and order services from that provider that require the
provider to configure the DNS records associated with the domain name.

Possible actions on a domain name at the registry include:
-       registration
-       deletion from the registry
-       deletion of the name from the registry DNS
-       changing name of the nameserver
-       

Most intellectual property and law enforcement efforts require
identification of the destination.   This is usually worked out in
reverse from the IP address that is returned when "looking up the DNS".
Ie the domain name WHOIS plays little role in this.


Comments from Council members:
===============================

Greg Ruth: 
-       support formulation 2, with clarifying words that it is use by
the registrant

Tony Holmes and Tony Harris
-       believe text needs to changed to reflect your intent

Marilyn Cade:
-       support "intent" of formulation 2
-       surprised that name of the "registered name holder" would not be
published
-       "use of" should refer to use by the Registered Name Holder

Grant Forsyth:
-       purpose of WHOIS should to provide information sufficient be
able to contact the Registered Name Holder

Philip Sheppard
-       want to cover the purpose for which data is collected, but task
fore asked for the purpose of WHOIS
-       believe purpose the data collected should have been identified
first

Robin Gross
-       support first formulation with no changes
-       second formulation has many problems because "use" has much
broader implications
-       concerned about identity theft resulting from widespread
publication

Norbert Klein
-       support first formulation with no changes

Ross Rader
-       support first formulation with no changes

Maureen Cubberly
-       purpose is to provide information to contact who is the ultimate
name holder
-       need to find out who the registered name holder
-       would like to make changes

Avri Doria
-       essentially support 1 (but could be better)

Sophia Bekele
-       support intent of formulation 2, but may need to improve wording

Bret Fausett
-       ALAC support formulation 1

Ken Stubbs
-       support formulation 1

June Seo
-       support formulation 1

Kiyoshi
-       IPC support formulation 2 as is