So marketing is now deciding how to discuss technical issues with customers?
Nope - we put sales in charge of those types of things.
The "joke" does, however, represent the opinions of many end-users. Ironically, if WHOIS were restricted to parties who had a reasonable need to know it, instead of being public, end users would be much more likely to provide valid contact information.
Whois is a mess.
Right to know is more of a mess IMHO tho' - for instance, does that include allowing law enforcement? (Think carefully through the answer - they already have strict due process requirements, should we make it easier for them to get identifying information about your customers?)
Personally, I think Whois should go away entirely. There's enough data in the ARIN/RIPE/APNIC databases for most technical requirements and certainly enough power in the judicial system(s) for everything else.
-- Regards,
-rwr
"In the modern world the intelligence of public opinion is the one indispensable condition for social progress."
- Charles W. Eliot (1834 - 1926)
