I agree with Karl, Adam, and Patrick, it won't take too long to anybody to find my contact information without using WHOIS, the only reason why I chose to keep my WHOIS data private is because I want to know who is asking for it. And Patrick is very right to point that WHOIS (as the DNS too) is being used for something it was not intended or designed for, and not to unmask crime or facilitate the life of trademark protectors and vigilantes. If there are "accredited" registrars that enable criminals or let people register a domain name with phony information just because it's incremental revenue, IMHO regardless of WHOIS, they are the ones that are first breaking the "rules" (ie registrar agreement) and they should provide if required and following a proper process that includes notifying the registrant that somebody is looking for its contact information, and if law enforcement has an "order" to obtain the information they would probably have to release it without consent from the registrant. Also, there will still be loopholes because the name space has and will continue to have some segments, like particular ccTLDs that don't have an agreement and will probably never have, and that give a squat about WHOIS. My .02 Jorge