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CIRA's Whois Debacle

By Michael Geist

I've written in the past about the hugely disappointing CIRA decision to backtrack on its WHOIS policy and create backdoor access for special interests.  CIRA has now posted the minutes (1, 2, 3) associated with the decision-making process and the deep divide within the board becomes immediately evident.  The minutes show a split board vote on the issue, two days of debate, supplementary comments from five board members explaining their vote, concerns about the lack of transparency, and a decision-making process that violated the central tenets of policy making. CIRA President Byron Holland argued that any delays would harm CIRA's credibility, though I'd argue the revised policy did that.  Perhaps most tellingly, the Government of Canada stepped in and left little doubt that it wanted to see exceptions created for law enforcement and intellectual property interests.  In the face of that pressure, a majority of CIRA's board caved. 

Full post as published by Michael Geist on July 28, 2008 (boomark / email).