Judge rules WHOIS privacy constitutes “material falsification”

Recently there has been heated debate about whether or not WHOIS privacy protection, an inexpensive service that lets domain registrants hide their contact information from the public, should be allowed.

In the recent case U.S. v Kilbride, an American judge ruled that using privacy protection constitutes “material falsification.” The defendant was on trial for spamming.

The ruling does not make the use of domain privacy protection illegal. Rather, the judge believed the spammer on trial was using it as a means to evade the authorities.

Keep in mind that privacy protection services will reveal your contact information if presented with a valid subpoena. This can often be a problem for law enforcement officials, however, as the document can sometimes take weeks or months to obtain. Then again, there is nothing stopping an individual from faking contact information from the get-go.

Photo | Flickr