There was some discussion of this at today's US House of Rep. 
hearing.  John Knuer, acting head of NTIA, said it was the official 
U.S. position and that NTIA would work very hard in the GAC and 
through ICANN's processes to make it happen.

Harold

At 03:56 PM 9/21/2006, Carlos Afonso wrote:
>It seems GAC's working group headed by NTIA is keen to totally open 
>WHOIS data -- not surprising, of course. Is this going to be the 
>position of the GAC?
>
>--c.a.
>
>-------- Original Message --------
>Subject: draft gac whois principles text
>From: "Suzanne Sene" <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Thu, September 21, 2006 1:02 am
>
>** High Priority **
>
>hello everyone, as the convenor of gac working group 1, i am pleased to
>forward the text of the draft gac whois principles regarding the purpose
>and use of whois data, prepared by our gac colleagues from australia
>(ashley cross and paul szyndler).
>
>this draft text is the culmination of both internal gac discussions and
>external public sessions the gac has organized since 2005 to address the
>public policy aspects of the purpose and use of whois data.
>
>during our most recent meeting in marrakech, the gac plenary agreed to
>finalize the principles at the sao paulo meeting in December, 2006.
>
>to meet the December deadline for gac plenary approval of the text, all
>gac members are requested to submit comments via the working group 1
>discus thread on whois according to the following timeline:
>
>October 13:  submission of first round of comments
>
>October 27:  revised text circulated
>
>November 2:  submission of second round of comments
>
>November 27:  final version of text circulated
>
>we will discuss the text during the working group 1 meeting in sao paulo
>on December 3, followed by discussion and adoption by the gac plenary.
>
>please note the availability of background documents on the gac discus
>site under the whois heading, and feel free to contact me should you
>have any questions.
>
>thanks in advance for your attention and support for this gac priority
>project.  best regards, suz.
>
>Suzanne R. Sene
>Senior Policy Advisor
>NTIA/OIA
>202-482-3167 (ph)
>202-482-1865 (fax)
>
>--- text version of attached document ---
>
>
>
>DRAFT
>
>GAC PRINCIPLES REGARDING THE PURPOSE
>AND USE OF WHOIS DATA
>
>Presented by the Governmental Advisory Committee
>December 6, 2006
>
>Preamble
>
>1.1    The purpose of this document is to identify a set of general 
>public policy principles related to the operation and management of 
>the generic top level domain (gTLD) WHOIS service.
>
>1.2These principles have been developed in consultation with 
>privacy, law enforcement, consumer and intellectual property bodies 
>within each GAC member government.
>
>Objective of this document
>
>2.1These principles are intended to guide the work within ICANN 
>pertaining to the WHOIS service and to inform the ICANN Board of the 
>consensus views of the GAC regarding the range of public policy uses 
>of WHOIS data.
>
>Public Policy Aspects of WHOIS Data
>
>3.1   The GAC believes that the WHOIS database serves many 
>legitimate purposes, including:
>
>1.Assisting national law enforcement agencies, both civil and 
>criminal, in resolving cases that involve the use of the Internet 
>(such as child pornography, violent crimes, wire fraud, cyber crime, 
>consumer fraud, identity theft, phishing, and other violations of 
>consumer privacy and data security);
>
>2.Combating intellectual property infringement and theft through the 
>identification of cybersquatters, trademark infringers, 
>counterfeiters, and copyright pirates;
>
>3.Supporting Internet network operators responsible for the 
>operation, security, and stability of the Internet;
>
>4.Protecting the rights of consumers by facilitating their 
>identification of legitimate online businesses; and
>
>5.   Assisting businesses in investigating fraud, phishing and other 
>violations of   law affecting their business interests and the 
>interests of their customers.
>
>
>3.2 While the GAC recognizes the complexity posed by such a broad 
>range of public policy uses of WHOIS data, the GAC believes that the 
>policy development process regarding the definition, purpose and 
>operation of gTLD WHOIS services needs to reflect the interests and 
>concerns of this broad range of users of WHOIS data.
>
>Principles Applicable to WHOIS Data
>
>4.1   The GAC believes that a fully functional WHOIS service should:
>
>1.Satisfy the traditional and ongoing goal of ensuring the security 
>and stability of the Internet;
>
>2.Facilitate continued, timely and cross-border access to accurate 
>WHOIS data for law enforcement, intellectual property rights 
>protection, consumer protection, and compliance and regulatory purposes;
>
>3.Provide the necessary level of data regarding domain name 
>registrants and registrations to any user who seeks it, including, 
>for example, civil and criminal law enforcement officials, online 
>consumers, network operators, intellectual property rights holders, 
>and registries and registrars; and
>
>4.Consider national laws and global agreements associated with trade 
>practices, consumer protection, intellectual property rights and 
>copyright protection, and privacy protection.