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WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

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Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#101

Post by smelendez »

clay_the_ripper wrote: post #69

I really wish WHOIS would go away forever. There is absolutely no point to it. If you don’t pay to get your name private, you get SPAMMED to such an incredible degree, it’s absolutely awful. Literally 10+ calls a day, emails voicemails. So you have to buy the “privacy protection” thing, which defeats the whole purpose anyway. All WHOIS does is create an industry of people selling privacy to WHOIS. This whole narrativ…

For what it's worth, I've absolutely used whois for journalism. It's helped me contact people for interviews- usually small business owners or bloggers who aren't particularly trying to hide but don't have their contact info on their actual websites.

Most memorably, I reached someone who imported erectile dysfunction supplements from China, only to have them destroyed by order of the FDA because they were actually made with prescription drugs. He said he felt the manufacturer defrauded him and was happy to talk.

But that hasn't worked for me in at least three years, as far as I can remember. The robocall problem has just gotten ridiculous, so everyone's paying to be anonymous. I briefly had a domain registered without privacy protection a couple of years ago, sort of out of principle, and immediately started getting spammy calls about SEO services.

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#102

Post by akhatri_aus »

clay_the_ripper wrote: post #69

I really wish WHOIS would go away forever. There is absolutely no point to it. If you don’t pay to get your name private, you get SPAMMED to such an incredible degree, it’s absolutely awful. Literally 10+ calls a day, emails voicemails. So you have to buy the “privacy protection” thing, which defeats the whole purpose anyway. All WHOIS does is create an industry of people selling privacy to WHOIS. This whole narrativ…

Whois can also be used to identify who owns IP blocks. Which is crucial to many applications such as security.

If you don't want your personal information to be visible thats very different to the full range of what whois can do. You can always use a proxy so there are options for privacy available. I've never got a single spam email/call from my whois data.

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#103

Post by Audible_logic »

mort96 wrote: post #6
kbar13 wrote: post #2

domain registration data is in a weird place for the modern internet. I can see the value of having a real registry when it was first developed, but now it seems like a pretty easy way for people to shoot themselves in the foot with regards to privacy. Also, some registrars charge a premium for WHOIS privacy. It should not cost extra to have your legal name and address to be hidden from the entirety of the internet.

Do any registrars not charge a premium for Whois privacy? I know Hover doesn't have a separate Whois privacy entry price, but the base price at Hover seems to be about the price of a domain + Whois privacy at other registrars.

I would 2nd Gandi.net. No additional fee for their who is privacy option.

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#104

Post by DrPhish »

lamlam wrote: post #33
jyxent wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CIRA has had DNSSEC support since 2014. https://cira.ca/dnssec-faqs I use Google Domains and it supports DNSSEC on my .ca domains.

Huh. This is great! Might be a NameCheap (my registrar) limitation. The way it's worded in the management page on NameCheap is that DNSSEC is not supported for .ca period. Definitely something I'll look into. Thanks!

Probably. I had to move to baremetal.ca to get DNSSEC support, and even then I had to email the info to their tech support team as the web interface didn't support it

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#105

Post by 7ewis »

tomyws wrote: post #72
7ewis wrote: post #36

Noticed this the other day, my own domain is already blacked out. I used to put fake info there anyway, I don't want my domain linked to my home address, or provide an easy way for spammers to get my email.

And you haven't been called out for Incorrect Whois Information? Complaints seem automatic, even with obscure domains I seem to register

Not yet, had my domain for a good few years now as well. Been through multiple renewals, it's never been picked up on.

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#106

Post by njarboe »

koolba wrote: post #94
toomuchtodo wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true with a revocable trust, which costs under $1000 to establish and provides all the same benefits of owning the real estate directly without disclosing ownership. Disclaimer: Applies primarily to IL and FL, not an attorney, nor your attorney.

If you do that in CA can you “sell” control of the trust to circumvent reassessment of the real estate taxes after a sale?

If a company or other entity is owned by a single person and just owns a single piece of property, this does not work and California will not let the prop 13 tax rate stay with the company. You are obviously trying to cheat to get around the law. As there are more owners of the company and the company has more diverse holdings, California is less likely to insist on resetting the assessed value of the real estate owned by the company upon sale. One REIT buying another REIT is fine. Like many laws, one does not really know what they mean on the edges until you do something and are taken to court.

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#107

Post by zaarn »

JeanMarcS wrote: post #95
slrz wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Choose a registrar that doesn't charge you extra? Your name stays in, of course, but your (electronic and snail) mail addresses and phone number can be replaced by registrar-managed ones where they forward you incoming stuff and (mostly) keep the spam. It's a pretty common thing with European providers, I think.

Another example is OVH with its owo option which obfuscate Whois datas for years.

OWO is sadly not available for some domains I use (notable .de and .eu don't seem to allow OWO).

WHOIS blackout and redesign under GDPR should address the problem of some registries requiring non-obfuscated WHOIS (some even requiring me to put in the ID number of my ID card)

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#108

Post by zaarn »

jedberg wrote: post #34
kbar13 wrote: post #2

domain registration data is in a weird place for the modern internet. I can see the value of having a real registry when it was first developed, but now it seems like a pretty easy way for people to shoot themselves in the foot with regards to privacy. Also, some registrars charge a premium for WHOIS privacy. It should not cost extra to have your legal name and address to be hidden from the entirety of the internet.

When you buy a house, your name and the purchase price are public information. Any one at any time can look up who owns a house, how much they paid for it, and how much they pay in property tax every year. I get a ton of spam because of this. However, I'd rather have this system than one in which all the owners are secret. I've had to look up owner information before to contact owners of various properties, and havin…

Not in my country unless you have a damn good reason to get that info.

The only way to get access to someone's address or phone number is to show up at the local community office and provide sufficient information (which means name + any previous address or known phone number registered with the office)

I think the same should go for domains. Unless you have a good reason (which IMO means spam complain, journalism or legal contact) you shouldn't be able to get any way to contact me. And for the above I have an imprint too which is protected against scrapers and spammers as best as I can unlike the WHOIS.

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#109

Post by Sephr »

akhatri_aus wrote: post #102
clay_the_ripper wrote: post #69

I really wish WHOIS would go away forever. There is absolutely no point to it. If you don’t pay to get your name private, you get SPAMMED to such an incredible degree, it’s absolutely awful. Literally 10+ calls a day, emails voicemails. So you have to buy the “privacy protection” thing, which defeats the whole purpose anyway. All WHOIS does is create an industry of people selling privacy to WHOIS. This whole narrativ…

Whois can also be used to identify who owns IP blocks. Which is crucial to many applications such as security. If you don't want your personal information to be visible thats very different to the full range of what whois can do. You can always use a proxy so there are options for privacy available. I've never got a single spam email/call from my whois data.

ARIN already provides public APIs for this without the need for WHOIS.

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#110

Post by zaarn »

MR4D wrote: post #91
f2n wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how any of those are remotely related to whois being removed. It's not like it represented anyone that could feasibly be sued before, just a whoisguard service, usually

In the US, we have different sites where you can look up patent information. In fact, IBM and Microsoft run this one, which is a global database. Article: https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-ibm-arm-back-open-pa... Site: http://oropo.net/ So my question, is if Whois had to take their site offline due to GDPR, then will things like this go offline? My concern is that GDPR will have a chilling effect not just on fr…

WHOIS will not be permanently offline, it will be temporarily offline while the ICANN and others work out how to give access to people who have legitimate interest in the data, ie people looking for a legal contact, sysadmins looking to notify someone, registrars themselves, etc.

I don't think the US patent database will go offline, the EU one might hide personal information like name and address unless you request access under legitimate interest.

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