No Such Weblog

I had another look at some of the contracts' WHOIS provisions tonight, and stumbled over a point that I had missed earlier. In the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, the billing contact is not part of the published data set, but retained by the registrar; this does not prevent registrars from publishing that record. In most of the thick TLD agreements' appendices O (or, if sponsored, attachments 15; see .info for an unsponsored example), though, the billing contact is included in the published whois information. There is a similar (but better-known) inconsistency with the registrant's telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address which are, again, not part of the data set that must be published by registrars, but included with thick registry WHOIS elements.

For individual registrants, these data elements -- if entered as originally intended -- are among the most privacy-relevant ones in the entire WHOIS data set.

(Almost) from IP: I wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2004, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make Europe great (not to imply that Europe is necessarily greater than any other continent or economic entity), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference of the wishes.