I wrote:

| As far as I can tell this has been introduced unilaterally by auDA
| without any room for community discussion or input.

I have been informed that auDA telegraphed its intent to setup something
like this a year ago at http://www.auda.org.au/reviews/whois-2005/:

   auDA published the outcome of the review in October 2005. In summary,
   auDA is proposing to make the following changes to the WHOIS Policy:

      * disclose registrant contact email addresses in a non-machine
        readable format
      * expand the WHOIS data set to include registered business name and
        trade mark information
      * include an explanation of the purpose of the technical contact.

I still think it is appropriate to hold discussions on how such policy
should be implemented, but clearly did not notice this report or its
findings. Hope this sets the record straight!

kim