[arin-ppml] The LRSA $100 fee...

[Milton L Mueller]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Vest [mailto:tvest at pch.net]
> > Sorry to spoil your points with facts.
> 
> Facts?! If you are referring to your latest ad hoc substitution of
> what we were previously talking about by something you'd be more
[snip]

> But I'll grant a partial indulgence anyway. "Improvement since 1999"
> is a clever way of phrasing the answer, 

No it's not. Again, you have to have some familiarity with the facts.
1999 is the date competition and the current registrar accreditation
agreement was put into place, and that's what we were discussing. You
said competition made it all go to hell. I contested that. 

> GAO 06-165, November 2005:
> Prevalence of False Contact Information for Registered Domain Names
> http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06165.pdf

The GAO study makes a plausible claim that about 5% of Whois records are
"patently" inaccurate about perhaps another 3.5% have some data field
missing. 

There is no historical comparative data. The report also showed that
ICANN's correction process worked about 1/3 of the time. Not good, but
before 1999 there was no process for reporting and correcting records at
all. 

Don't forget to keep this all in context. This is DNS Whois, not IP
address Whois. The registries know who has what domain and as long as
the registrar is identified and the nameserver records are accurate the
name functions and it can be tracked if necessary. All the other info is
ONLY of interest to TM lawyers trying to surveill and serve process on
domain name owners. The absence of a data field (e.g., an admin contact
name missing or bogus) has no appreciable effect on the operation of the
DNS or on the Internet. 

What we were discussing, if you will recall, is whether Whois accuracy
in 2008 is better than it was in 1999, when competition was instituted.
Are you able to credibly contest this claim? Or not? If not, what
exactly is your point, Tom? 

Further - and I don't know the answer to this one - do you think ARIN
Whois's level of general accuracy exceeds 92%? You might want to check
that.  

At this stage the argument for improved enforcement of the Whois
reporting and correction process is little more than an argument for a
bigger ICANN and a free service to IPR lawyers. Since 2005 ICANN's
budget has more than doubled, I think. We will approach $100 million in
the next couple years. Does that make you happy? Does it make you lick
your lips at how big and wealthy ARIN can become if you play your cards
right?