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posted by takyon on Wednesday November 21 2018, @09:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the privacy-vs-piracy dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

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.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Thursday November 22 2018, @12:42AM (1 child)

    by edIII (791) on Thursday November 22 2018, @12:42AM (#765010)

    What they really meant was, "it's a financial burden for us to perform discovery on each and every domain name using the established policies and procedures, and then following due process in the relevant jurisdictions".

    I have domains. They were private before. If you wanted to contact me just based off the domain, which has a real phone number listed anyways if you looked hard enough, a lawfirm is contacted instead. They are paid by me (indirectly) to forward such requests for communication. I would believe that if a legal summons of some sort were made and sent to them, they would be legally obligated to inform me of it. So saying that they cannot get ahold of me is bullshit. Saying they can't file a court case and remove my privacy with due process is bullshit.

    This is about being able to mass threaten entire groups of people with threats of litigation on the cheap.

    If you don't mind filing some court papers and sending subpoena to the right entities, it's relatively straightforward to legally deal with an anonymous website owner.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 22 2018, @11:02AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 22 2018, @11:02AM (#765137)

    What they really meant was, "it's a financial burden for us to perform discovery on each and every domain name potential suspect using the established policies and procedures, and then following due process in the relevant jurisdictions".

    FTFY

    Sincerely,
    <name of law enforcement agency here>