I think there are two uses that registrars try to block with these irregular whois practices:
1. Harvesting for spam 2. Scripting I for one like to keep a look out for some expiring domains. I do this by checking whois at regular intervals (once a day). I do not want to do this manually. So I do it with a script. A couple of hundreds of domains daily. This is not causing any stress, since this load goes to a lot of different registrars. Please, do not tell me I can achieve the same thing by trying to register these domains once a day. I know that is even easier. But I do not know whether I want the domains I am checking. Some I will still in half a year, others perhaps not. Some not even tomorrow. I am just curious. I even check a few names that I once had registered myself to see if some other fool finds it interesting. If harvesting for spam was really the only thing registrars wanted to block, query limits would be the solution. But I suspect that it is something more fundamental. Some (for obviously not all are bad) registrars would very much like to sell the whois data, in stead of providing them for free. So they make it as difficult as they can get away with. In due course I might be willing to pay a little to avoid having to type names in manually in my browser and study a picture with a number. But is this right? Have registrars any right in MY whois data? Unfortunately it is very easy to get away with almost anything short of manslaughter if you are a registrar under ICANN. On Wed, 15 Jan 2003, at 11:41 [=GMT-0800], Thomas Mon wrote: > I just read this message from Bill and I was wondering if anyone had > fowarded this message to any type of "Sight Impaired" organizations. This > is clearly not a very friendly thing to do and they should be stopped. > > Tom. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Monday, December 30, 2002 10:54 AM > Subject: Registrar's in violation of WHOIS port 43 requirement; was re: > InterNIC > > > > *I'm singling out Godaddy as a blatant violator of WHOIS port 43 due to > > the e-mail I received from the "assistant to the president" when I pointed > > out politely that their port 43 WHOIS service (as required by ICANN) > > wasn't working. Godaddy's assistant to the president stated that the > > "standard way" (I haven't seen this RFC) to look up WHOIS information is > > to use the registrar's website; turn cookies on so they can track you; > > turn images on; and manually type the number seen in the image... sight > > impaired people can forget getting any WHOIS information at Godaddy. > >
