WHOIS is a protocol which makes it easy to see the info a given domain has been registered with through a command line or using special web-based lookup sites. This info includes the names, address and e-mail address of the owner, admin, technical and billing persons along with the registrar company the domain name has been purchased through, the creation and expiration dates. With the exception of a few country-code TLDs that have certain limitations, the WHOIS details of any domain address can be changed freely at any time, which is quite necessary since based on the policies of the top-level Internet Corporation, ICANN, all details ought to be current and legitimate all of the time. Failing to comply with these policies may lead to losing the ownership of an Internet domain and in some cases a domain name may even be removed from the Domain Name System and released for free registration.