Congressman Smith on WHOIS and ICANN’s next MoU

From Congressman Lamar Smith‘s opening statement of last week’s WHOIS hearings: Mr. Berman and I wrote Secretary Evans on August 8 requesting that, among other things, any succeeding MOU: (1) be limited to one-year, (2) preserve public access to online systems, like “Whois,” and (3) take steps to improve the integrity of registrant contact information. … In response, we will hear testimony that Commerce: (1) intends to extend the MOU with ICANN for more than one year, (2) “recognize[s]” the value of public access to online systems, like “Whois,” and (3) intends to include no affirmative steps in the MOU in an effort to improve ICANN’s underwhelming enforcement record. While Commerce intends to add a laundry list of seven “milestones” to assess ICANN’s future performance, not one of these deals principally with Whois, contract enforcement, or intellectual property protections. This, too, is inexcusable.