Pursuant to requirements of the GSNO policy development process, the Registry Constituency (RyC) submits

Pursuant to requirements of the GSNO policy development process, the Registry Constituency (RyC) submits these comments on the draft Preliminary Task Force 1Report on Whois Services (the “Report”) : I. Constituency position INTRODUCTIONThe Report opens with a summary of “the key findings that have emerged during the work of the Whois Task Force since it was convened in February 2005….” According to the Report: “The task force has reached agreement on the following issues: • Many registrants do not understand the meaning or purpose of the different Whois contacts (billing contact, administrative contact, technical contact). • If changes are made to the Whois service, awareness-raising for registrants will be needed. • New mechanisms to restrict some contact data from publication should be adopted to address privacy concerns The task force has been unable to reach agreement on the following issues: • The purpose of the Whois contacts • Whether different data should be published in Whois.” The RyC concurs with this summary, and these comments will deal primarily with the need (a) to move forward on the areas where there is agreement and (b) to recognize a breakdown in the consensus building process with respect to issues where the task force has been unable to reach agreement. First, however, some general comments are needed to set the stage for the more specific comments on the open issues. Although this task force was convened in ...