Public Comment

Public Comment is a vital part of our multistakeholder model. It provides a mechanism for stakeholders to have their opinions and recommendations formally and publicly documented. It is an opportunity for the ICANN community to effect change and improve policies and operations.

Whois Changes

Open: 14 September 07
Closed: 30 October 07

Explanation:A Whois taskforce convened in June 2005 completed its work and sent a final report to the GNSO Council in March 2007. In that report, a majority of members endorsed a proposal called the “Operational Point of Contact” (OPOC). Under OPOC, every registrant would identify a new operational point of contact and the registrant’s postal address, city, and postal code would no longer be displayed. The operational point of contact’s name and contact information would be displayed instead, and it would replace the administrative and technical contacts.

Expanding on that work, the GNSO Council in March created a Whois working group to examine three issues and make recommendations on them:

1. To examine the roles, responsibilities and requirements of the OPOC, and what happens if they are not fulf2 illed;
2. To examine how legitimate interests will access unpublished registration data; and
3. To examine whether publication of registration contact information should be based on the type of registered name holder (legal vs. natural persons) or the registrant’s use of a domain name.

The working group’s report [pdf] was published on 20 August 2007. On 6 September 2007, the GNSO Council approved a resolution for further public comment on the report with the intention to lead to a vote on the issue on 31 October 2007 during the Los Angeles ICANN meeting.

The resolution called for ICANN staff to prepare a ” final report” covering the Whois reports referenced above and called Staff overview of Recent GNSO Whois Activities [pdf] by 11 October, 2007. Public comments are invited on both of the GNSO Council’s Whois reports and recommendations referenced above and summarized in the Final Staff Overview of Recent GNSO WHOIS Activity of 11 October.

Please comment on the Whois Task Force and Working Group Reports, the11 October Final Staff overview of Recent GNSO Whois Activities [pdf] and the 11 October Staff Implementation Notes on the Whois Working Group Report [pdf] .

Comments will be taken until 00:00 UTC (17:00 PDT) on 30 October 2007.

 

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