On Tue, 3 Jul 2001, Eric Brunner-Williams in Portland Maine wrote:
...
because the major use of the whois data has become spam
I'll ask my friends in the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) and the IAB (the _other_ IAB, the one that's Got Milk, the Internet Advertizing Board) about the quality of the whois data from their perspective. My sense is it (registrant email/smail/isp data) is cheaper than $.10/unit mailing lists, and not as well maintained as $1/unit lists. I just can't recall a major on-line add campaign that spammed.
I suspect that whois spammers are fairly far down in the food chain, since it is "free data", and utterly unmaintained historically.
There are two distinct sets of information. What I originally referred to was the ARIN data for ip delegation and rwhois servers. It is pretty obvious that those collecting such contact email addresses and spamming network owners must literally have a cyber death wish. The other set is the whois maintained by domain registrars. There, Randy may have a point, although the legitimate use of such data far outweighs the spam problem. [snip]
Thanks for the opening line Randy. Who was that masked man?
Eric
Actually, I'm a bit surprised he brought it up, considering the Verio vs. Register.com legal skirmish. ;) --Mitch NetSide