APNIC Whois Database Acceptable Use Agreement

The APNIC Whois Database acceptable use agreement explicitly states the parameters that copyright extends to:

“Except for Internet operational purposes approved by APNIC, no part of the APNIC whois data may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of APNIC on behalf of the copyright holders. Any use of this material to target advertising or similar activities is explicitly forbidden and will be prosecuted. APNIC requests to be notified of any such activities or suspicions thereof. The APNIC whois data may not be passed on in bulk to any other person or organization unless approved by APNIC.”

Any request to pass on information to any other person or organization will be evaluated on the statement of purpose outlined by the requestor.

Users will not be able to download the full contents of the database unless the intended use is for “Internet operational issues”. These words are tightly defined and would include network trouble-shooting, abuse reporting, and Internet research and analysis. It would not include compiling marketing lists, demographic mapping, or any other commercial application.

Each request would be carefully considered in light of the APNIC Whois Database acceptable use agreement.

Similarly, you cannot use the database to map IP address to geographic location. APNIC does produce another data source that allows for convenient geographic mapping. See the APNIC allocation and assignment report.