At the moment, if you want to register a web address, you must provide your contact details. However, many domain registration services allow to keep this data private by providing their own contact details for Whois queries, which are the directory look-ups for web addresses.

Now Icann, the agency coordinating the Internet’s infrastructure, has suggested to end that practice and make any commercial website ineligible for proxy registrations. However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized a plan to end anonymity for website owners. It believes that such move may put users at risk of harassment and identity theft.

Privacy advocates are arguing that the risks to website owners to suffer from harassment, intimidation and identity theft outweigh any benefits of the move. In particular, the EFF claims that the option of anonymous speech protects people with unpopular opinions, who in this case don’t fear harm. Besides, anonymity protects whistleblowers exposing crime and corruption.

On the other hand, Icann’s proposal is backed by the American entertainment industry. This is not surprising, as the content industry has long been critical of anonymity online, claiming that many domain registrations “lurk in the shadows of the public Whois, via an unregulated proxy registration system that is the antithesis of transparency”. The entertainment industry calls to bring domain registrations into the sunlight, pointing out that although there’s a legitimate role for proxy registrations in some cases, the current system can be manipulated to make it impossible to identify people responsible for abusive domain name registrations.

The proposal is backed by 6 copyright industry agencies that represent the music, gaming, software and movie industries, and also Time Warner and Disney. In response, domain registrar Namecheap started to encourage supporters to email Icann and object to the move; besides, the registrar has put together RespectOurPrivacy.com and offers to call people to walk them through the process. Namecheap claims that the privacy of its customers should be protected, regardless of whether their websites are commercial or not. If you want your confidential info to stay confidential, it’s time to tell Icann.

If this thing passes, I can see many tracker staffs giving up on running them.

(Sigh)