While this is true, we cannot ignore the Affirmation of Commitments:

9.3.1 ICANN additionally commits to enforcing its existing policy relating to WHOIS, subject to applicable laws. Such existing policy requires that ICANN implement measures to maintain timely, unrestricted and public access to accurate and complete WHOIS information, including registrant, technical, billing, and administrative contact information. One year from the effective date of this document and then no less frequently than every three years thereafter, ICANN will organize a review of WHOIS policy and its implementation to assess the extent to which WHOIS policy is effective and its implementation meets the legitimate needs of law enforcement and promotes consumer trust.

On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 11:13 PM, Stephanie Perrin <stephanie.perrin@mail.utoronto.ca> wrote:

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

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Terri Stumme

Intellligence Analyst