In the case of trademark holders (as well as copyright and patent owners), however, claims that a domain name infringes their rights will be enough to allow CIRA to again disclose registrant information. This represents a stunning about-face after years of public consultation on the whois policy.
The exception for trademark, copyright and patent interests undermines a crucial part of the whois policy, namely compliance with Canadian privacy law (the policy now arguably violates the law) and the appropriate balance between privacy and access.
For example, consider a Canadian who registers a dot-ca domain to be used as a whistleblower site about a company. The registrant may understandably wish to remain anonymous to the general public since disclosure of their personal information could lead to negative repercussions.
Under the new CIRA policy, if they use fake registrant information, they risk losing the domain. On the other hand, the back-door exception means that the trademark holder can easily uncover the identity of the registrant since CIRA will simply hand over this information.
CIRA has defended the changes by arguing that the policy will be reviewed in 12 months. Yet CIRA could just have easily retained the no-exception policy and reviewed its effect one year later.
