NSI Bulletin 098-010 | Update on Whois

Wed Sep 9 20:03:25 UTC 1998

On Thu, 3 Sep 1998, Sean Donelan wrote:

> with NSF.  As much as I dislike SPAM, I do not think concern about the
> use of the data for marketing purposes is a good justification for NSI
> to unilaterally block individuals from accessing the WHOIS data.

According to David Holtzman of NSI (i asked him), the restrictions on whois 
are merely for technical reasons.  I believe that he believes this, and 
from his point of view they have every right to filter/limit obnoxious or 
badly configured hosts/sites.

But even if what he thinks is true, the facts are that NSI is restricting
access to the database while using it's data for mailings designed to make
a profit.  I'm not an attorney, but it sounds like any spammer/marketeer
could sue them successfully unless they can show that they own the
database, or that the database owner wants the status to remain quo.

> I would be interested in knowing why a couple of sites have found the
> need to query the WHOIS data so heavily.  And once we knew their need,
> perhaps finding a better solution.  But the NSF cooperative agreement

George wouldn't tell me who they are but he implied that they are just 
clueless.

> If NSI is looking for a nice off-site storage facility to store a backup
> of the database in case something happens on the east coast (see
> http://nic.ddn.mil/DNS/root-server.html) I know of a nice centrally
> located facility :-)
> -- 
> Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO

You mean Saint Louis?  The original home of the FidoNet NIC?  Sounds good 
to me.

Bill