[dns-operations] whois in a soundbite

[John Levine]

>> I can do better in fewer words: whois is utterly useless.
>>
>`whois` is very useful for those who needs to harvest data to identify
>malicious domains such as Fast-Flux and DGAs.
>
>Well, at least for academic issues, it has been very useful.

Even in its current cruddy state, WHOIS is extremely useful to figure
out who's doing evil stuff online and in some cases build legal cases
against them.  I talk to people all the time who do this, in industry,
academia, and law enforcement.  I have testifed in court at trials of
online criminals.

So please don't say "whois is useless". It's not true, and it helps
the clueless self-appointed privacy activists who want to destroy what
utility WHOIS has.

R's,
John

PS: I've talked to at least one lawyer at a well known public interest
group who wouldn't believe me when I told him most domains are
registered by businesses rather than individuals, because of the
nonsense his privacy activist friends had been feeding him.