Reglikedomain industry desk

Manager sues Whois API — .NZ domain

Manager sues Whois API — .NZ domain

Firm goes following another Whois record seller.

Logo for Whois XML APIDomain Name Commission (DNC), which manages Fresh Zealand’s .nz country code domain name, has sued Whois information provider Whois API. The firm is also known as Whois XML API.

The lawsuit is similar to one it filed against DomainTools last year.

DNC alleges that Whois API has accessed and stored .nz Whois records in violation of its terms of use.

The group sent a cease & desist letter to Whois API on December 17, 2018, the lawsuit states. At that time, it also revoked Whois API’s limited license to run any .nz Whois queries. It states it didn’t receive any response following multiple attempts to contact Whois API and its CEO.

Whois API originally sold a lot of data to people that used it for marketing purposes, counting Whois database downloads, but has shifted its messaging to security over the years.

The lawsuit filing is here (pdf).

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