14 must do fields in RAA Whois

Less than six months to the kick-off of the latest implementation of Registrar Accredited Agreement (RAA) by January 1, 2014, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has listed 14 must do Whois fields.

ITRealms gathers that these include Registry Domain ID, Registrar Abuse Contact Email, Registrar Abuse Contact Phone, Domain Status, Registry Registrant ID, Registrant Phone, Registrant Phone Ext, Registrant Fax, Registrant Fax Ext, Registrant Email, Registry Admin ID, Registry Tech ID, DNSSEC and last update of WHOIS database.

Also, ITRealms gathered that the Transition Addendum to the RAA explicitly references a list of RAA provisions for which registrar compliance is not required until 1 January 2014.

Thus, the Registration Data Directory Service (Whois) specification was not included within that list of provisions.

“Accordingly, registrars are immediately required to comply with obligations described in that specification, including the obligation to format Whois data as defined in the specification,” ICANN officials stated.

Registrars, ICANN further said, are not, however, required to include in their Whois output, data elements that do not yet exist or are not already in the registrar's possession.

“This includes reference to the items for which compliance is not yet required,” ICANN source said.

Explaining that registrars who are subject to the 2013 RAA must continue to include all of the fields described in Section 3.3.1 of the RAA in their Whois output and the data elements they have within their possession.

ICANN told registrars they are not, however, required to include the following fields in their Whois output until 1 January 2014, even though registrars were encouraged to, comply earlier.

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