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Re: Is WHOIS going to go away?


From: "Aaron C. de Bruyn via NANOG" <nanog () nanog org>
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2018 20:36:37 +0000

On Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 12:53 PM Keith Medcalf <kmedcalf () dessus com> wrote:

This last statement is entirely untrue.  WHOIS provides information as to
the PUBLISHER (such as one would find on the masthead of a newspaper).
This is, ought to be, and should remain, public information.


Oh, so I'm a newspaper now?  Or are you telling me there's some magical
setting in media publishing that prevents someone from hitting 'print'
without attaching an identifying masthead?

I as an individual should be able to register whatever site I want without
filing to become a corporation to protect my identity from nutjobs on the
internet if I so desire.  Anyone with legal concerns about the content I
might publish can hire a lawyer, get a warrant, and reveal who owns
xyz.tld.  Not that registering as a corporation protects your private
identity either.

But in all other forms of media I *can* protect my identity.

I can publish a podcast, get interviewed by the news media with my face
blurred, type up a crazy manifesto and distribute leaflets through town,
take out an Ad in a newspaper, etc...

You still need to "get a warrant" (or a rubber hose) as you so quaintly put
it to ascertain the origination of the information published.


Am I misunderstanding the incessant yearly emails I get from my registrar
warning me that I better be using valid information?  What part of whois
requires a warrant to view that information?

-A


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