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MPAA: Making All Domain WHOIS Data Public Will Advance Privacy
Anti-piracy groups witnessed their work becoming more complicated this year after the EU's new privacy regulations limited access to domain name WHOIS data. This measure is supposed to increase privacy for registrants but in a submission to the US Government, Hollywood's MPAA stresses that restoring full access increases the privacy of the public at large.
A few weeks ago, the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), asked the public for input on ways to improve consumer privacy. [...] The request came a few months after the EU's new privacy regulation, the GDPR, was implemented. The GDPR requires many online services and tools to tighten their privacy policies, which also affects domain registrars.
As of June 2018, ICANN implemented a temporary measure to restrict access to personal data that would previously have been available through WHOIS, unless explicit permission is given. A welcome privacy change to many domain registrants, but anti-piracy groups are not happy. While the limited WHOIS data is supposed to improve user privacy, the MPAA tells the NTIA that the opposite is true. They believe that opening it up again "will advance privacy while protecting prosperity and innovation," in line with NTIA's aims.
[...] The MPAA says that when it comes to WHOIS data, sharing more personal data in public – as it was in the past – benefits the public at large. Sharing personal data of all website owners allows visitors to check who they are dealing with. "Users are not 'reasonably informed' or 'empowered to meaningfully express privacy preferences' if they cannot determine the entity behind a website," the MPAA explains. [...] Concerns about limited WHOIS data are not new. Previously, a group of 50 organizations warned that it makes pirates harder to catch, which is of course the MPAA's main stake in the matter.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @10:03PM (6 children)
The fact that it's the MPAA whining leads me to believe that removing WHOIS privacy would be very detrimental to the public and that the last thing it would do is advance privacy.
This ranks right up there with Facebook's "improve your privacy by sending us all your nude photos" nonsense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @10:20PM (1 child)
Well, not only do I want nude photos, I also want PET scans and DNA, but send the nudies first. It's for your own good, trust me.
I agree with the MPAA. Make all this shit public to light a fire under some engineer's ass to develop a suitable ad hoc networking scheme. When are we gonna get bulletproof P2P??
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @10:26PM
https://www.brinks.com/en/ [brinks.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 22 2018, @12:03AM (2 children)
This ranks right up there with "rape cures AIDS".
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday November 22 2018, @02:17AM (1 child)
Anubi : Eliminating copyright will eliminate piracy.
Duhhh...
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 4, Touché) by maxwell demon on Thursday November 22 2018, @05:18AM
Yeah, absolutely. If copyright was abolished, why would anyone ever rob a ship again? :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @11:56AM
Post the private contact details of MPAA employees?