The ICANN GNSO gTLD Registry Constituency is one of several organizations that is providing financial support for the Privacy Conference - Building Bridges on ICANN's Whois Dilemma organized by the GNSO Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) for Tuesday afternoon, November 29, in Vancouver, British Columbia. This statement of sponsorship is provided to communicate the Registry Constituency's reasons for being a sponsor of this event.

It is first of all recognized that Whois policy work is currently in progress as part of the GNSO policy development process and in fact has been ongoing for several years. Many people have spent considerable time and energy contributing to this effort and their efforts are sincerely appreciated. The gTLD registries would like to make clear that in sponsoring the Privacy Conference it is in no way our intent to bypass the GNSO policy development process, but rather to constructively contribute to that process.

It is our understanding that the initial idea by the NCUC was to a hold Privacy Conference that complemented the GAC Whois Workshop previously planned for the morning of November 29 in Vancouver. In particular the goal was to provide additional time for dialog and discussion particularly about data protection as related to Whois. The GAC has since cancelled its workshop so the Privacy Conference may now be the only organized session focusing on Whois in Vancouver.

This conference is focused primarily on privacy and data protection rather than the focus on intellectual property and law enforcement needs that have been the subject of numerous previous conferences. It is the opinion of the gTLD registries that since the Whois discussions that occurred in ICANN's meetings in Montreal in June 2003, both intellectual property protection and law enforcement needs have received considerable attention, and we believe that there is a need to update information about privacy and data protection needs. In this regard, in response to the issues paper posted by ICANN regarding its strategic plan, the Registry Constituency submitted comments that included the following statement:

"In the context of Internationalization, ICANN needs to urgently address the subject of harmonization of its consensus policies and practices with international law. We recommend that this be included as a new issue in the list of issues for the ICANN strategic plan. The need to include this subject is clearly demonstrated on the example of prolonged and stalling activity of the Whois task force. The Whois task force(s) started in 2003 with the "Staff Manager's Issues Report on Privacy Issues Related to Whois" and the issue is referred to on the GNSO web site as "Whois Privacy". Yet, the term "privacy" seems to have vanished from the name of the task force in the latest terms of reference. In reality, privacy as related to Whois is really an issue for both gTLDs and ccTLDs and therefore is an ideal topic for joint consideration by both supporting organizations. It may be useful to establish a Whois privacy task force involving the GNSO and ccNSO to specifically address the international needs regarding privacy."

As a way to encourage participation of ccTLDs, the Registry Constituency specifically recommended to the NCUC that ccTLDs be encouraged to participate in the Privacy Conference. As a result, the wwTLD organization decided to combine the afternoon portion of their Vancouver meeting with the Privacy Conference.

While there is a clear focus on privacy and data protection on the agenda of the Privacy Conference, it should be understood that the Registry Constituency supports a balanced approach to solving the Whois dilemma. We recognize that there are multiple uses of Whois that need to be recognized and accommodated including those of intellectual property users and law enforcement agencies.

It is our hope that the Privacy Conference will accomplish the following objectives:

• Clarify the international law requirements with regard to privacy and data protection as it relates to Whois.
• Provide a forum in which constructive dialog can occur among the full spectrum of those who recognize the importance of the protection of personal privacy, including privacy advocates, intellectual property interests, law enforcement representatives and any others who are concerned about Whois policies.
• Contribute information that will assist the GNSO Whois task force and the GNSO Council as it continues to perform its job of managing the policy development efforts regarding Whois.