On Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 12:53 PM Keith Medcalf <kmedcalf@dessus.com> wrote:
This last statement is entirely untrue. WHOIS provides information as to the PUBLISHER (such as one would find on the masthead of a newspaper). This is, ought to be, and should remain, public information.
Oh, so I'm a newspaper now? Or are you telling me there's some magical setting in media publishing that prevents someone from hitting 'print' without attaching an identifying masthead? I as an individual should be able to register whatever site I want without filing to become a corporation to protect my identity from nutjobs on the internet if I so desire. Anyone with legal concerns about the content I might publish can hire a lawyer, get a warrant, and reveal who owns xyz.tld. Not that registering as a corporation protects your private identity either. But in all other forms of media I *can* protect my identity. I can publish a podcast, get interviewed by the news media with my face blurred, type up a crazy manifesto and distribute leaflets through town, take out an Ad in a newspaper, etc... You still need to "get a warrant" (or a rubber hose) as you so quaintly put
it to ascertain the origination of the information published.
Am I misunderstanding the incessant yearly emails I get from my registrar warning me that I better be using valid information? What part of whois requires a warrant to view that information? -A