Let's play a little game with Occam's Razor... Perhaps they took the lazy and lawful route of buying the WHOIS data?
Why would openSRS (or any registrar) do this? Another simple answer, they must. Here are some relevant quotes, which some of you have probably seen many times: --------------- REGISTRAR ACCREDITATION AGREEMENT http://www.icann.org/nsi/icann-raa-04nov99.htm [...] F. Public Access to Data on SLD Registrations. During the term of this Agreement: [...] 6. In addition, Registrar shall provide third-party bulk access to the data subject to public access under Section II.F.1 under the following terms and conditions: a. Registrar shall make a complete electronic copy of the data available at least one time per week for download by third parties who have entered into a bulk access agreement with Registrar. b. Registrar may charge an annual fee, not to exceed US$10,000, for such bulk access to the data. c. Registrar's access agreement shall require the third party to agree not to use the data to allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations via e-mail (spam). d. Registrar's access agreement may require the third party to agree not to use the data to enable high-volume, automated, electronic processes that apply to Registrar (or its systems). e. Registrar's access agreement may require the third party to agree not to sell or redistribute the data except insofar as it has been incorporated by the third party into a value-added product or service that does not permit the extraction of a substantial portion of the bulk data from the value-added product or service for use by other parties. f. Registrar may enable SLD holders who are individuals to elect not to have Personal Data concerning their registrations available for bulk access for marketing purposes based on Registrar's "Opt-Out" policy, and if Registrar has such a policy Registrar shall require the third party to abide by the terms of that Opt-Out policy; provided, however, that Registrar may not use such data subject to opt-out for marketing purposes in its own value-added product or service. --------------- I think that pretty much speaks for itself. if not.. Registrars must allow for companies to buy their WHOIS data. I don't like it anymore than anyone else we I get the letters and I dislike it even more when it takes customers, but since those are the current rules we shall live by them. If you want to change the rules, that is a different topic and a different list. Have a great night, Michael On Mon, 3 Jun 2002 19:41:57 -0700, Genie Livingstone used a few recycled electrons to form: | It's being done all the time - they spread the lookups over several | unsuspecting whois script owners and time them about one whois querry | per so many seconds - we catch them all the time on our whois.cgi and | simply block that IP simply to find another rascal trying later, this is | one of the reasons we think livestats or similar visitor monitoring are | priceless to protect our IP from being banned since there are abuse | attempts by harvesters | | cheers | Genie | | | > How about the following scenario: | > 1. someone signed up for zone files (free) | > 2. someone2 wrote a perl script for someone for $50 (25/hr) | > that perl script does the following: | > opens zone file stored localy. | > queries using oroginal registrar whois server. | > looks if expiration date is in the next century or less, | > if this the case puts all necesarry information into template. | > when all zone file are done prints results. | > Then manyaly someone3 puts it into envelops an mails it (bulk) | > 3. someone gets payments from the customers of other registrars. | > 4. Since ICANN takes no action and this "additional" incomes saves the | > company from Ch 11. this info is priceless. | | |
