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The Whois public database of domain name registration details is dead.
In a letter [PDF] sent this week to DNS overseer ICANN, Europe's data protection authorities have effectively killed off the current service, noting that it breaks the law and so will be illegal come 25 May, when GDPR comes into force.
The letter also has harsh words for ICANN's proposed interim solution, criticizing its vagueness and noting it needs to include explicit wording about what can be done with registrant data, as well as introduce auditing and compliance functions to make sure the data isn't being abused.
ICANN now has a little over a month to come up with a replacement to the decades-old service that covers millions of domain names and lists the personal contact details of domain registrants, including their name, email and telephone number.
ICANN has already acknowledged it has no chance of doing so: a blog post by the company in response to the letter warns that without being granted a special temporary exemption from the law, the system will fracture.
[...] Critics point out that ICANN has largely brought these problems on itself, having ignored official warnings from the Article 29 Working Party for nearly a decade, and only taking the GDPR requirements seriously six months ago when there has been a clear two-year lead time.
One company that is caught in the middle of the dispute is sanguine about the possible death of the service. "Is this the end of public Whois? Yes, in its current form," CEO of Irish registrar Blacknight, Michele Neylon told us. "But is it going to go completely dark? No."
Neylon has long complained about ICANN's refusal to acknowledge European law when it comes to the Whois service: back in 2013, he refused to sign an updated version of the contract that domain name sellers have with ICANN until it gave him a legal waiver over its data retention requirements.
"That decision probably cost us money, but if we have to choose between operating legally or illegally our path is clear," he wrote in a blog post this week.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 15 2018, @05:18PM (2 children)
Neither you or anybody else has a right to restrict what a person can post on the internet. We must keep it totally open, and I am always hoping for a technology to make it indelible and invincible against all tyrants. Little by little we must tear down all borders. We could do it the easy way and live and let live, but I'm all for using whatever force is needed to keep the lines open. Censorship must die! Just don't give your info to the registrars, or build a service that *routes around the problem*... DNS is fucked anyway, and wide area networks shouldn't be using the 'client/server' model. Instead of crippling what we have with capricious, arbitrary regulations, look for better tech. The entire network should only be cables and switches, creating a dumb pipe. The only limit should be the applied voltage and current. As for content, BUTT OUT! That simple
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 15 2018, @08:09PM (1 child)
Oh, yes, it's going to harm you so much that ICANN can't force people who own domain names to make their personal details available for all to see. This is tyranny!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 15 2018, @08:47PM
Sorry, if enough people resisted, you wouldn't have this problem. You'll just have to create another system. Whatever, we should not let Europe, or anybody else decide what we can post on the internet. We have to circumvent all censorship without further discussion. If you don't want to help that's okay. But don't piss and moan with your obstructions are pushed aside. Or you can piss and moan all you want, but you still shall be pushed aside if you stand in the way.