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INteresting article. Just a reminder, tomorrow morning at 8am in
the Sandringham room, the EWG discusses its report again. And
privacy afternoon is from 3-6 in the Sovereign room.<br>
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<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://domainincite.com/16963-a-million-domains-taken-down-by-email-checks">http://domainincite.com/16963-a-million-domains-taken-down-by-email-checks</a></div>
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<h2><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://domainincite.com/16963-a-million-domains-taken-down-by-email-checks">A
million domains taken down by email checks</a></h2>
<div class="singleflanel"> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://domainincite.com/about">Kevin Murphy</a>, June
24, 2014, 14:34:25 (UTC), <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://domainincite.com/category/domain-registrars"
title="View all posts in Domain Registrars" rel="category
tag">Domain Registrars</a> </div>
<p><strong>Over 800,000 domain names have been suspended since
the beginning of the year as a result of Whois email
verification rules in the new ICANN Registrar Accreditation
Agreement.</strong></p>
<p>That’s according to the Registrars Stakeholder Group, which
collected suspension data from registrars representing about
75% of all registered gTLD domain names.</p>
<p>The actual number of suspended domains could be closer to a
million.</p>
<p>The 2013 RAA requires registrars to verify the email
addresses listed in their customers’ Whois records. If they
don’t receive the verification, they have to suspend the
domain.</p>
<p>The RrSG told the ICANN board in March that these checks were
doing <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://domainincite.com/16375-are-whois-email-checks-doing-more-harm-than-good"
title="DI">more harm than good</a> and today Tucows CEO
Elliot Noss presented, as promised, data to back up the claim.</p>
<p>“There have been over 800,000 domains suspended,” Noss said.
“We have stories of healthcare sites that have gone down,
community groups whose sites have gone down.”</p>
<p>“I think we can safely say millions of internet users,” he
said. “Those are real people just trying to use the internet.
They are our great unrepresented core constituency.” </p>
<p>The RrSG wants to see contrasting data from law enforcement
agencies and governments — which pushed hard for Whois
verification — showing that the RAA requirement has had a
demonstrable benefit.</p>
<p>Registrars asked at the Singapore meeting in March that law
enforcement agencies (LEA) be put on notice that they can’t
ask for more Whois controls until they’ve provided such data
and ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://domainincite.com/16375-are-whois-email-checks-doing-more-harm-than-good"
title="DI">said</a> “It shall be done by London.”</p>
<p>Noss implied that the majority of the 800,000 suspended names
belong to innocent registrants, such as those who had simply
changed email addresses since registering their names.</p>
<p>“What was a lovely political win that we said time and time
again in discussion after discussion was impractical and would
provide no benefit, has demonstrably has created harm,” Noss
said.</p>
<p>He was received with cautious support by ICANN board members.</p>
<p>Chair Steve Crocker wonder aloud how many of the 800,000
suspended domains are owned by bad guys, and he noted that LEA
don’t appear to gather data in the way that the registrars are
demanding.</p>
<p>“We were subjected, all of us, to heavy-duty pressure from
the law enforcement community over a long period of time. We
finally said, ‘Okay, we hear you and we’ll help you get this
stuff implemented,’”, he added. “That creates an obligation as
far as I’m concerned on their part.” </p>
<p>“We’re in a — at least from a moral position — in a strong
position to say, ‘You must help us understand this. Otherwise,
you’re not doing your part of the job’”, he said.</p>
<p>Chehade also seemed to support the registrars’ position that
LEA needs to justify its demands and offered to take their
data and concerns to the LEA and the Governmental Advisory
Committee.</p>
<p>“They put restrictions on us that are causing harm, according
to these numbers,” he said. “Let’s take this back at them and
say, hey, you ask for all these things, this is what
happened.”</p>
<p>“If you can’t tell me what good this has done, be aware not
to come back and ask for more,” he said. “I’m with you on this
100%. I’m saying let’s use the great findings you seem to have
a found and well-package them in a case and I will be your
advocate.”</p>
<p>Director Mike Silber also spoke in support of the RrSG’s
position.</p>
<p>“My view is if what you are saying is correct, the LEA’s have
blown their credibility,” he said. “They’re going to have to
do a lot of work before we impose similar disproportional
requirements on actors that are not proven to be bad actors.”</p>
<p>So what does this all mean for registrants?</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s any ongoing process right now to get
the Whois verification requirements overturned — that would
require a renegotiation of the RAA — but it does seem to mean
demands from governments and police are going to have to be
much more substantiated in future.</p>
<p>Noss attempted to link the problem to the recommendations of
the Whois Expert Working Group (EWG), which propose a
completely revamped, centralized Whois system with <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://domainincite.com/16855-whois-killer-is-a-recipe-for-a-clusterfuck"
title="DI">much more verification</a> and not much to
benefit registrants.</p>
<p>To paraphrase: if email verification causes so much harm,
what harms could be caused by the EWG proposal?</p>
<p>The EWG was not stuffed with LEA or governments, however, so
it couldn’t really be characterized as another set of
unreasonable demands from the same entities.</p>
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