WHOIS is a protocol which makes it easy to see the details a given domain has been registered with either through a command line or with the help of special web-based lookup sites. This info includes the names, address and email address of the owner, administrator, technical and billing persons plus the registrar organization the domain address has been acquired through, the creation and expiration dates. Except for some country-code TLDs that have specific limitations, the WHOIS information of any domain name can be edited freely anytime, which is quite important given that in accordance with the policies of the top-level Internet Corporation, ICANN, all details ought to be current and legitimate at all times. Failure to conform with these policies could lead to losing the ownership of an Internet domain and in some cases a domain name may even be deleted from the Domain Name System and released for free registration.