WHOIS is a protocol that makes it easy to view the info a given domain name has been registered with through a command line or with the help of special web-based lookup sites. This information includes the names, address and email address of the owner, admin, tech and billing persons in addition to the registrar company the domain name has been obtained through, the creation and expiration dates. Apart from some country-code TLDs that have certain limitations, the WHOIS information of any domain name can be changed freely at any time, which is quite important provided that according to the policies of the top-level Internet Corporation, ICANN, all details must be current and correct all of the time. Failure to conform with these policies may result in losing the ownership of a domain name and in some cases a domain address might even be erased from the Domain Name System and released for free registration.
