Hello Marilyn,
We are also still looking for cc's who use a form of tiered access.
The WHOIS task force may wish to invite Chris Disspain, the CEO of .au Domain Administration (auDA) which is the policy body for .au, to explain the mechanism used in Australia. .au uses a tiered access structure. There are three tiers. (1) public access (see http://whois.ausregistry.com.au/ ), which provides the following information: Domain Name: Last Modified: Registrar ID: Registrar Name: Status: Registrant name: Registrant ID: Registrant ROID: Registrant Contact Name: Registrant Email: Tech ID: Tech Name: Tech Email: Name Server: Name Server IP: Name Server: Name Server IP: (2) Registrar access. A registrar can access the full records for the names under their management, and can also access other registry records, if the registrant provides them with an access password (auth_info). The access password is typically provided by a registrant that wishes to transfer to the registrar. The registrar is able to retrieve the full record as part of the process of authenticating the transfer request. (3) Law enforcement access. An Australian law enforcement agency may make a request to auDA for access to particular records in writing. auDA has full access to all records for this purpose. Regards, Bruce Tonkin Registrars representative on the GNSO Council