[arin-ppml] Policy Proposal: Customer Confidentiality

[Milton L Mueller]

Lee, 
1. IANAL, too
2. you don't need to have passed a bar exam to know that there are laws pertaining to privacy, or to discuss them. 
3. i've co-authored policy papers, some in refereed journals, with legal professionals about dns whois, including an international comparison of privacy laws and their relevance to whois
4. privacy laws don't need to reference whois specifically to be relevant to whois. 
5. some laws do specifically reference it, e.g., in the bilateral trade agreements in which the U.S. tried to impose a specific approach to DNS Whois upon small trading partners (Peru, Singapore, etc.). Those countries responded by invoking their national privacy laws and saying that any whois service had to comply with them. q.e.d.

Milton Mueller
Professor, Syracuse University School of Information Studies
XS4All Professor, Delft University of Technology
------------------------------
Internet Governance Project:
http://internetgovernance.org
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lee Howard [mailto:spiffnolee at yahoo.com] 
> 
> M. Mueller said:
> > This doctrine bears no relationship to actual law regarding 
> privacy and freedom 
> > of association. 
> 
> I am unaware of any laws describing WHOIS, but IANAL.  If 
> there are laws in 
> relevant jurisdictions, please cite them by number.
> 
> Also, it would be handy for you to disclose your legal 
> credentials when providing
> legal advice.
> 
> Lee
> 
> 
> [IANAL] = I am not a lawyer.
> 
> 
> 
>       
> 
>