It should be noted that there are perfectly legitimate reasons why trademark
holders should be able to access contact information about domain name registrations
that they feel are infringing their trademarks.  In fact, there is a degree
of obligation on a trademark holder to take action to protect their trademark
when it is infringed otherwise they place themselves in potential danger
of losing their rights to the mark.

It should also be noted that not all trademark holders are "evil american
conglomerates" and many are the sort of small businesses that are well represented
on this mailing list.

That said, I think the .au domain space has the very significant advantage
over most other domain spaces in that there is a degree of external authentication
of registrations (ABN, ACN, TM etc) which means that TM holders can use
these external data sources to obtain contact information for .au domain
name holders, as and when required.

While this external authentication process is in place, I would suggest
that it is not necessary for TM holders (or anyone else for that matter)
to be able to access whois contact details from the whois database.

If/when this external authentication process is removed, I would suggest
that this issue needs to be revisted.

Clearly the police service has no role to play in collating evidence of
copyright or trademark infringements as these are not, in themselves, criminal
acts.

Jon


>-- Original Message --
>Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2005 15:20:37 +1000
>From: Michael Purse <pursey&#167;gmail.com>
>To: ".au DNS Discussion List" <dns&#167;dotau.org>
>Subject: Re: [DNS] Current Policy Reviews
>Reply-To: ".au DNS Discussion List" <dns&#167;dotau.org>
>
>
>I note that an 11th submission has appeared on the auDA website (Odd,
>considering that the final date for submissions was August 31) from
>the International Trademark Association.
>
>INTA has basically echoed the calls of the Council of Online
>Accountability. It needs to be made clear to these organisations that
>the WHOIS system is not there to catch people that infringe trademark
>and copyright laws.
>
>The Police Service can find information on domain registrants if so
>requested by them with the correct documentation provided to their
>registrar. WHOIS is not there as a system of information gathering for
>vigilante law enforcement by the Recording and Motion Picture
>industries.
>
>Regards,
>
>Michael Purse
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