RE: [dow1tf] Another potential WHOIS user -- research / Internet study

[Paul Stahura <stahura@xxxxxxxx>]

I remember this issue (historical whois information) being discussed on the
CRISP list.
Here are some links fyi

http://lists.verisignlabs.com/pipermail/ietf-not43/2003-November/001033.html
http://lists.verisignlabs.com/pipermail/ietf-not43/2003-November/001039.html

http://lists.verisignlabs.com/pipermail/ietf-not43/2003-November/001032.html

http://lists.verisignlabs.com/pipermail/ietf-not43/2003-November/001041.html

http://lists.verisignlabs.com/pipermail/ietf-not43/2003-November/001040.html


Paul


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dow1tf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-dow1tf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Wendy Seltzer
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 8:07 AM
To: 'dow1tf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx'; Neuman, Jeff
Subject: [dow1tf] Another potential WHOIS user -- research / Internet study

Gordon Mohr,  Internet Archive, invited me to forward his comments to the 
group and offered to respond to questions we develop.

--Wendy

>Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 13:38:22 -0800
>From: Gordon Mohr <gojomo@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: ICANN/WHOIS Comments
>
>
>Hi, Wendy.
>
>At the Internet Archive, we'd very much like to have uniform access
>to WHOIS data, either as snapshots at regular intervals or an event-
>stream including expiration and change-of-ownership times.
>
>As it stands, sometimes the lack of this info causes us problems
>in deciding whether a particular part of our archived material should
>be made publically available. We respect the original material's
>provider's wishes whenever possible, but when the domain may have
>transferred over the years, it can be hard to identify who is the
>original publisher.
>
>So, we get people who want old material to be made available, but the
>current site's 'robots.txt' (which we typically respect retroactively)
>prohibits access. Or, we get people who want things removed from the
>public archive, though they no longer control the domain in question.
>
>An accurate record of ownership through the years would help us
>to respect people's wishes -- as well as assist other research
>which people perform through the IA on the evolution of the web
>and websites.
>
>We'd be happy to get the info at a lag -- 6 months, a year, whatever --
>that preserves much of its commercial value for others. We could also
>keep the info private, using it only for internal and academic
>purposes.
>
>Ideally, we'd like to see ICANN require all registrars, as a condition
>of their franchise, to save this data and make it available, at cost, to
>archival institutions like ourselves once a certain amount of time has
>passed (or certain acceptable-usage conditions are met).
>
>Looking several years ahead, I could imagine the "digital deposit"
>laws that have begun in some European countries being tuned up, to include
>such a requirement of clear domain title records -- once the national
>libraries recognize that they face the same provenance and
>chain-of-domain-ownership issues that the IA faces today.
>
>- Gordon
>

--
Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@xxxxxxxxxxx
Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html
Chilling Effects: http://www.chillingeffects.org/