WHOIS Running the Internet: Protocol, Policy, and Privacy

8 THE FUTURE OF WHOIS

There are several major WHOIS issues on the table for coming years: the release of new Generic Top-Level Domains (i.e. “dotANYTHING”), the growing deployment of Internet Protocol Version 6, the new proposed model for WHOIS, further internalization, and the emergence of Alternate DNS. All are fraught with controversy and complexity. These issues impact and are impacted by WHOIS policy. Web Extensible Internet Registration Data Service (WEIRDS) is an attempt to standardize the data framework in simple ways, which will support internationalized registration data and be based on client authorization. But WEIRDS is just one of the emerging projects. The Aggregated Registration Directory Service (ARDS) project, called the next-generation WHOIS, is a massive push to reform WHOIS. There is also a new version of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), which contains very specific enforcement enhancements and WHOIS requirements¹ including a specific WHOIS Accuracy Program Specification.² In summary, we have WEIRDS that is supposed to improve access, ARDS that is supposed to improve management, and RAA 2013 that is supposed to be an enforcement. If history is any guide, we may end up with something else in implementation. All efforts will fail if ICANN operates as it has in previous attempts. In terms of information, ICANN finally created a comprehensive portal for WHOIS: whois.icann.org as ICANN had been criticized for not providing such a top-level presentation ...