Brands owners benefit from whois privacy, even though they’d prefer their adversaries not be able to use it.
There’s a common myth in intellectual property circles that, if it weren’t for whois privacy and proxy services, there would be a lot less bad stuff on the internet.
I can bust a hole right in the myth. But instead, I’d like to point out something these companies don’t often admit: they are some of the biggest users of whois privacy.
I was reminded of this while reviewing some notes from a recent .NYC Advisory Board meeting. .NYC doesn’t allow registrants to use whois privacy. That’s why, when two firms working on behalf of Michael Bloomberg registered a bunch of embarrassing domain names, I was able to easily find out who was behind it. During the meeting, someone pointed out that Bloomberg’s lawyers had to register the domains in their name, which ended up being rather embarrassing for them. Click here to continue reading…