Further to our discussion this morning about the openness (or otherwise) of WHOIS, here is the quote I was referring to from the SSAC document 003, from 2003: In order for Whois data to be readily available it must be both accessible and usable by automatic tools. To be accessible the Whois protocol must be updated to support the recent shift in the architecture to separate the functions of the registry and the registrar. This shift has made it impractical to support searching and frequently makes it difficult to find Whois services. To be usable the data returned by Whois services must in be a common format. *However, being accessible and usable must also protect a registrant's privacy. Many * *countries require that personal information is protected but in addition registrants may * *wish to discourage the unintended, undesirable, and otherwise unwanted uses of their * *Whois data. In particular, it is widely believed that Whois data is a source of email * *addresses for the distribution of spam. Methods must be developed to discourage the * *harvesting or mining of Whois information*. I interpret this as support for the notion that there have been reservations from parties other than civil society, with respect to the concept of all WHOIS data being freely available, from the early days of ICANN. Stephanie Perrin