Is WHOIS going to go away?

Fri Apr 20 20:36:37 UTC 2018

On Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 12:53 PM Keith Medcalf <kmedcalf at dessus.com> wrote:

> This last statement is entirely untrue.  WHOIS provides information as to
> the PUBLISHER (such as one would find on the masthead of a newspaper).
> This is, ought to be, and should remain, public information.
>

Oh, so I'm a newspaper now?  Or are you telling me there's some magical
setting in media publishing that prevents someone from hitting 'print'
without attaching an identifying masthead?

I as an individual should be able to register whatever site I want without
filing to become a corporation to protect my identity from nutjobs on the
internet if I so desire.  Anyone with legal concerns about the content I
might publish can hire a lawyer, get a warrant, and reveal who owns
xyz.tld.  Not that registering as a corporation protects your private
identity either.

But in all other forms of media I *can* protect my identity.

I can publish a podcast, get interviewed by the news media with my face
blurred, type up a crazy manifesto and distribute leaflets through town,
take out an Ad in a newspaper, etc...

You still need to "get a warrant" (or a rubber hose) as you so quaintly put
> it to ascertain the origination of the information published.

Am I misunderstanding the incessant yearly emails I get from my registrar
warning me that I better be using valid information?  What part of whois
requires a warrant to view that information?

-A