RE: [council] A WhoIs motion for our meeting in San Francisco

[<HughesDeb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I second this motion.

Debbie

Debra Y. Hughes l Senior Counsel 
American Red Cross 

Office of the General Counsel  
2025 E Street, NW 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Phone: (202) 303-5356 
Fax: (202) 303-0143 
HughesDeb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:HughesDeb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>  

 

________________________________

From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
Behalf Of john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2011 8:36 PM
To: Glen de Saint Géry
Cc: Council GNSO
Subject: [council] A WhoIs motion for our meeting in San Francisco

 

As the new guy, I am willing to tilt at windmills and so want to offer this 
motion for consideration at the next meeting of the GNSO Council

 

Cheers,

 

John Berard

 

Whereas:

 

In October 2007, the GNSO Council concluded that a comprehensive and objective 
understanding of key factual issues regarding the gTLD WHOIS system would 
benefit future GNSO policy development efforts 
(http://gnso.icann.org/resolutions/).

 

Before defining study details, the Council solicited suggestions from the 
community for specific topics of study on WHOIS. Suggestions were submitted 
(http://forum.icann.org/lists/WHOIS-comments-2008/) and ICANN staff prepared a 
'Report on Public Suggestions on Further Studies of WHOIS', dated 25-Feb-2008 
(http://gnso.icann.org/issues/Whois-privacy/Whois-study-suggestion-report-25feb08.pdf).

 

On 28-Mar-2008 the GNSO Council resolved to form a WHOIS Study Working Group to 
develop a proposed list, ifany, of recommended studies for which ICANN staff 
would be asked to providecost estimates to the Council 
(http://gnso.icann.org/meetings/minutes-gnso-27mar08.shtml).

 

The WHOIS Study WG did not reach consensus regarding further studies, and on 
25-Jun-2008 the GNSO Council resolved to form a new WHOIS Hypotheses working 
group to prepare a list of hypotheses from the 'Report on Public Suggestions on 
Further Studies of WHOIS' and the GAC letter on WHOIS studies 
(http://www.icann.org/correspondence/karlins-to-thrush-16apr08.pdf). The WG 
reported to the Council on 26-Aug-2008. 
(https://st.icann.org/Whois-hypoth-wg/index.cgi?Whois_hypotheses_wg#Whois_study_hypotheses_wg_final_report).

 

On 5-Nov-2008, the Council convened a group of Councilors and constituency 
members to draft a resolution regarding studies, if any, for which cost 
estimates should be obtained. TheWhois Study Drafting Team further consolidated 
studies including those from the GAC 
(http://www.icann.org/correspondence/karlins-to-thrush-16apr08.pdf).  The Team 
determined that the six studies with the highest average priority scores should 
be the subject of further research to determine feasibility and obtain cost 
estimates.

 

On 04-Mar-2009, Council requested Staff to conduct research on feasibility and 
cost estimates for selected Whois studies and report its findings to Council.  
(See Motion 3, http://gnso.icann.org/resolutions/#200903).

 

On 23-Mar-2010, Staff presented a report on the feasibility and cost estimates 
for the Whois "Misuse" and Whois "Registrant Identification" Studies, finding 
that each study would cost approximately $150,000 and take approximately one 
year to complete. 
(http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois/whois-studies-report-for-gnso-23mar10-en.pdf).
  The Whois Registrant Identification study would gather info about how 
business/commercial domain registrants are identified, and correlate such 
identification with the use of proxy/privacyservices.  

 

The ICANN Board approved in Brussels a FY2011 budget that includes at least 
$400,000 for WHOIS studies (see 
http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-25jun10-en.htm#8).

 

On 8-September-2010 the GNSO Council approved a resolution requesting staff to 
proceed with the Whois "Misuse" Study, which would explore the extent to which 
publicly displayed WHOIS data is misused, 
http://gnso.icann.org/resolutions/#201009.

 

On 5-October-2010, staff provided feasibility and cost analysis for a Whois 
Privacy and Proxy "Abuse" study, 
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois/gnso-whois-pp-abuse-studies-report-05oct10-en.pdf.
 This study would compare broad sample of domains registered with a proxy 
orprivacy service provider that are associated with alleged harmful acts 
withoverall frequency of proxy and privacy registrations.  This study was 
estimated to cost $150,000 and take less than a year to complete.

 

On 11-February-2011, staff provided a feasibility and cost analysis for a Whois 
Proxy and Privacy "Relay and Reveal" study, 
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois/whois-pp-relay-reveal-studies-report-11feb11-en.pdf,
 which would analyze relay and reveal requests sent for Privacy and 
Proxy-registered domains to explore and document how they are processed.  The 
staff analysis concluded that it was premature to conduct a full study, and 
recommended that a pre-study "survey" be conducted first, to determine if 
launching a full study is feasible to do.

 

Resolved:

 

Council requests ICANN staff to proceed with the WHOIS Registrant 
Identification Study, as described in Staff's 23-Mar-2010 Report, using the 
vendor selection process described in Annex of that same report. 
(http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois/whois-studies-report-for-gnso-23mar10-en.pdf).

 

Further resolved, that the Council requests ICANN staff to proceed with the 
Whois Privacy and Proxy "Abuse" study, as described in staff's 5-October-2010 
report, using the vendor selection process described in that same report, 
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois/gnso-whois-pp-abuse-studies-report-05oct10-en.pdf.

 

Further resolved, that the Council requests ICANN staff to proceed with the 
Whois Privacy and Proxy "Relay and Reveal" pre-study survey, as proposed in 
staff's 11-February-2011 report, 
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois/whois-pp-relay-reveal-studies-report-11feb11-en.pdf.
 

 

Further resolved, that the Council request that the Board authorize additional 
funding for FY 2012 forWhois studies, to make up the shortfall of $130,000 
between the amount of "at least $400,000" that was allocated for Whois studies 
in FY 2011 (and remains unspent), and the total amount needed to conduct the 
Whois Misuse Study ($150,000); the Whois Registrant Identification Study 
($150,000); the Proxy/Privacy "Abuse" Study ($150,000); and the Proxy and 
Privacy "Pre-study" ($80,000), total of $530,000.

 

Further resolved, in recognition that there is a substantial amount of 
coordination needed to direct this research, that staff be given the discretion 
to manage the studies serially or in parallel, with a goal of expediting 
completion of the studies as efficiently as possible.