I just came across this article talking about abandoning whois. It sounds like a bad idea to me.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hCiHLmZiymo5BhARlugPCaGcTsUQD8SJ3H6O0
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hCiHLmZiymo5BhARlugPCaGcTsUQD8SJ3H6O0