WHOIS is a protocol that makes it easy to see the info a given domain has been registered with through a command line or by using special web-based lookup sites. This information includes the names, address and email address of the owner, admin, technical and billing persons in addition to the registrar business the domain address has been obtained through, the creation and expiration dates. With the exception of a few country-code TLDs that have specific limitations, the WHOIS details of any domain address can be changed freely at any time, which is quite necessary considering that based on the policies of the top-level Internet Corporation, ICANN, all details have to be current and valid all of the time. Failure to conform with these policies could lead to losing the ownership of a domain address and in many cases a domain might even be deleted from the Domain Name System and released for free registration.