melbourne chapter

Recently I received a “notice of domain expiration” from the Domain Registry of America in the post. I’ve never dealt with these guys in the past so it was quite obvious that my information had been lifted from the whois database as entered by my domain registrar. To my knowledge any use of whois data for commerical benefit is prohibited(?) but honestly, who enforces this? I have made numerous abuse reports to hosts in the past to no avail, which really begs the question whats the point of whois if not to provide a wealth of information to spammers and would be spammers?

Perhaps a better idea for APNIC and co. is to list domain registrar contact information only - and keep the domain holder info private. I can’t see why info such as the domain holder address and what he/she eats for breakfast is made public record.