Hello everyone, just a quick question. Hope this is in the right place.

On my surfing around of random personal blogging websites and the such, I've seen it's become a bit of a trend to use information such as the following in your whois information...

Where [DOMAIN NAME] = mydomain(.com)

[DOMAIN NAME]
MISS [DOMAIN NAME]
1 [DOMAIN NAME] Road
[DOMAIN NAME]
D 0 M 4 1 N

That's just an example, but obviously it's fake information put there because webmasters don't want their addresses all over the internet.

Can people do this? Isn't providing such information illegal? With my domain, I was able to opt my information out; isn't this option available on all hosts? Or are 'personal' websites not obliged to provide correct information as corporate or profit making ones are?

Providing ridiculously false information (such as the now famous ... or infamous "Yellow Brick Road") only puts the ownership of your domain at risk. So unless some illegal activities are involved, there is just no reason on earth that anybody would do that. You may want to report any such inaccurate or incomplete whois information at:

http://reports.internic.net/cgi/rpt_whois/rpt.cgi

Ohhh I don't know if I could. I'd feel guilty :blush: One person's website is one I've visted for a while now. Although I did e-mail her once and she ignored the e-mail and she does whine a lot on her website... hmmm.

Thanks for the advice!

If a stumble across a child porn or lottery scam web site with false Whois information I'd have no hesitation over reporting them - one way of getting them shut down!

If it's clearly a private individual who doesn't want their home address and personal email plastered all over the Internet I'd turn a blind eye. I don't think people should be required to publish their private home addresses just because they have a (personal) web site. Nominet has the right idea - they allow private individuals to be ex-directory (which I believe they have to under UK data protection rules)

Originally posted by Lubeca
I don't think people should be required to publish their private home addresses just because they have a (personal) web site.
Well ... there ain't no such thing as a "personal" website: websites are by nature PUBLIC. Moreover, you don't really need a domain name to publish on-line, AND you don't need to use your HOME address at all. ;)

I don't know of any law that makes lying illegal, in general. There are laws about lying to the police (USA), i.e. obstruction of justice, and to the courts, etc. I don't know of any law about lying on a domain registration. I believe it is an organizational policy and that they will withhold services if you violate it (USA law does not apply to most people on the earth in any case :rolleyes: ). If you lie to commit fraud, I believe it is the fraud that is illegal, not the lying.

Actually I don't know anything about this but would like to hear more from someone that does. Thanks for the opportunity to participate.


gary

Originally posted by nameslave
Well ... there ain't no such thing as a "personal" website: websites are by nature PUBLIC. Moreover, you don't really need a domain name to publish on-line, AND you don't need to use your HOME address at all. ;)

Web sites are not always public. I know plenty of people whose family web sites are password protected and accessible only to trusted family and friends.

And no, you don't need a domain - but ultimately it's the only way to ensure continuinty. Providers go under or change their name, your domain name (generally) stays.

Originally posted by projo
I don't know of any law that makes lying illegal, in general. There are laws about lying to the police (USA), i.e. obstruction of justice, and to the courts, etc. I don't know of any law about lying on a domain registration. I believe it is an organizational policy and that they will withhold services if you violate it (USA law does not apply to most people on the earth in any case :rolleyes: ). If you lie to commit fraud, I believe it is the fraud that is illegal, not the lying.

Actually I don't know anything about this but would like to hear more from someone that does. Thanks for the opportunity to participate.


gary

It's not a law, it's part of the terms and conditions of registering a domain name. These conditions are imposed on registrars by ICANN who in turn are contractually bound to impose them on registrants. And some registrars do enforce these rules quite stringently - there was a well-publicised case recently where a spam-fighting web site was shut down when someon (probably a spammer who got hurt by them!) complained to the registrar that the fax number in the Whois listing was not working.

Thanks for participating, guys.

I am aware about nominet; I have my info ex directory and please, I don't want people to think i'm going out of my way to report individuals and whatever. I just wondered, is all since I had been seeing many people doing this and wondered if it was indeed against the law. I have no malicious intent :)

I find it bizarre when websites are deemed 'private'. I think password protected websites are the exception, but when people post blogs or whatever and then start whining because people in their offline life have "found" them... it's bizarre. Then it's a game of cat and mouse to find where they've gone to with a new domain.

Maybe this is another reason why people like to remain anon?

Maybe the philosophy belongs in the lounge :D

answers:

yes they CAN do it. No it isnt allowed per the rules.