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Businesses face losing domains under new rules
2nd April, 2003
At its latest board meeting in Rio de Janeiro, the international governing body which oversees domain name registration, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) adopted 'consensus policies' regarding the accuracy of WHOIS domain name data which could result in businesses losing their domains.
The WHOIS database holds registrants' details so that a domain name operator can be traced by a range of people, including registrars, Internet Service Providers, intellectual property holders, law enforcement and consumer protection agencies. Accuracy of this data is essential to all of these parties. To reduce the ability of cybersquatters and people engaging in unlawful activities to avoid detection by submitting false data, ICANN's new policy requires that all registrants be contacted annually by their registrar to ensure all data on the WHOIS database is correct.
Undoubtedly the major stakeholders will welcome the new policy. However, two main concerns have been raised. The first is that forcing registrants to disclose their details compromises online privacy. This will obviously not cause any particular anxiety to the intellectual property, law enforcement and consumer protection communities. And individual registrants can always choose to make their WHOIS data relatively anonymous by appointing a third party as their domain name agent.
The second concern is that the move may well affect the business community who in the past have often suffered from a failure to keep consistent and accurate contact details for registrar/registrant communications. Almost on a daily basis, Demys encounters stories of businesses failing to renew domain names and other issues, such as the more obscure possibility of domain name hijacking, all of which can arise from keeping inaccurate registration details.
More details at: http://www.demys.net/news/2003/04/02_ic.htm
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