[19383] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: NSI Bulletin 098-010 | Update on Whois
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Becker)
Wed Sep 9 16:24:22 1998
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 16:03:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: Bill Becker <bbecker@iconn.net>
To: Sean Donelan <SEAN@SDG.DRA.COM>
cc: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <980903175605.caa3@SDG.DRA.COM>
On Thu, 3 Sep 1998, Sean Donelan wrote:
> with NSF. As much as I dislike SPAM, I do not think concern about the
> use of the data for marketing purposes is a good justification for NSI
> to unilaterally block individuals from accessing the WHOIS data.
According to David Holtzman of NSI (i asked him), the restrictions on whois
are merely for technical reasons. I believe that he believes this, and
from his point of view they have every right to filter/limit obnoxious or
badly configured hosts/sites.
But even if what he thinks is true, the facts are that NSI is restricting
access to the database while using it's data for mailings designed to make
a profit. I'm not an attorney, but it sounds like any spammer/marketeer
could sue them successfully unless they can show that they own the
database, or that the database owner wants the status to remain quo.
> I would be interested in knowing why a couple of sites have found the
> need to query the WHOIS data so heavily. And once we knew their need,
> perhaps finding a better solution. But the NSF cooperative agreement
George wouldn't tell me who they are but he implied that they are just
clueless.
> If NSI is looking for a nice off-site storage facility to store a backup
> of the database in case something happens on the east coast (see
> http://nic.ddn.mil/DNS/root-server.html) I know of a nice centrally
> located facility :-)
> --
> Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO
You mean Saint Louis? The original home of the FidoNet NIC? Sounds good
to me.
Bill
