Whois - Law and Policy

Law and Policy

WHOIS has generated policy issues in the United States federal government. As noted above, WHOIS creates a privacy issue which is also tied to free speech and anonymous speech. However, WHOIS is an important tool for law enforcement officers investigating violations like spam and phishing to track down the holders of domain names. Law enforcement officers become frustrated when WHOIS records are invalid. As a result, law enforcement agencies have sought to make WHOIS records both open and verified:

• The Federal Trade Commission has testified about how inaccurate WHOIS records thwart their investigations.
• Congressional hearings have been conducted about the importance of WHOIS in 2006, 2002, and 2001.
• The Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act "make it a violation of trademark and copyright law if a person knowingly provided, or caused to be provided, materially false contact information in making, maintaining, or renewing the registration of a domain name used in connection with the violation," where the latter "violation" refers to a prior violation of trademark or copyright law. The act does not make the submission of false WHOIS data illegal in itself, only if used to shield oneself from prosecution for crimes committed using that domain name.