Wired broke the news yesterday that plans to charge for access to the .name whois registry raises a number of concerns, around the ability of security researchers to police the internet and could create ‘a haven for hackers who run internet scams’.
Global Name Registry (GNR) administers domain names ending in .name which are intended for use by individuals. There will be a basic level of free access to the Whois records that will show only basic information and a ‘paid for’ level of access that will include all data. Five passwords cost $2.00.
When the news was reported on the Internet infrastucture and policy blog CircleID Hakon Haugnes, President of Global Name Registry, posted a detailed and robust defence of GNR’s actions. He concluded that
We believe this is the best possible compromise between two very different positions, one legal (EU Data Protection Act), the other legacy (Whois as a fully open tool for anyone) - on one side, that personal information should be protected, and on the other side, that bad registrations and illegal conduct should be identified and remedied.
The longer term implication of Global Name Registry’s actions is still unclear. Importantly, if this goes well how long will it be before this principle is applied to all Registries and all domains.
