Internet Engineering Task Force                    Eric Brunner-Williams
Internet-Draft                                                Wampumpeag
September, 2002                                       Expires March 2003


               Request to Move RFC 954 to Historic Status

                 <draft-brunner-rfc954-historic-00.txt>

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

   This document is an Internet-Draft. Internet-Drafts are working
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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract


   This memo requests a change of the status of RFC 954, "NICNAME/WHOIS"
   to Historic.

1. Introduction

   The NICNAME/WHOIS [1] protocol, a TCP transaction based
   query/response protocol, and server [2], ran on a host located at SRI
   International.  It was one of a series of internet services
   maintained by the DDN Network Information Center (NIC) at SRI
   International on behalf of the Defense Communications Agency (DCA).




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   This service provided DDN-network-wide directory service to internet
   users, via user programs running on local hosts, and delivered the
   full name, U.S.  mailing address, telephone number, and  network
   mailbox for DDN users who were registered in the NIC database.

2. Action

   Since the Defense Communications Agency (DCA) no longer contracts to
   SRI International to operate the DDN Network Information Center (NIC)
   at SRI International on its behalf, and the ARPANET was retired in
   1990, and all DDN services terminated in 1995, MILNET included, the
   IESG is moving RFC 954 to Historic status.

3. Security Considerations

   Moving RFC 954 to historic ends the application of DCA user data
   disclosure practices (unrestricted) to non-DCA Network Information
   Centers.  Unrestricted access to NIC user registration data is a
   significant cause of limited user trust in network security, hence in
   a trustable network.  Unrestricted access to NIC user registration
   data gives rise to excessive load on NIC user registration data
   services, excessive load on mail relays via unsolicited bulk email,
   and related abuses.

4. References

   [1] Harrenstein K., Stahl M., and E. Feinler, "NICNAME/WHOIS",
   RFC-954, Network Information Center, SRI International, October 1985.

   [2] MILNET address: 26.0.0.73, ARPANET address: 10.0.0.51

Author's Addresses

   Eric Brunner-Williams
   Wampumpeag, LLC
   1415 Forest Ave.,
   Portland, ME 04103
   Email: brunner@nic-naa.net

Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001). All Rights Reserved.

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   others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
   or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
   and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
   kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are



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   included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
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Acknowledgement

   Funding for the RFC editor function is currently provided by the
   Internet Society.



























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