The House Judiciary Subcommitee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, will hold hearings on ICANN and Whois next week.  Rep. Lamar Smith (Texas), the committee’s Chair and Rep. Howard L. Berman (California), the ranking Democrat wrote to Commerce Secretary Donald Evans raising questions about Whois issues.

I find the last two paragraphs of page two of the letter of particular interest, as they state that ICANN is aware of registrars’ systematic non-compliance with their accreditation agreements, and mention ICANN’s apparently conscious decision to not enforce those agreements.  See “Pornography for Children, Zuccarini, Joker and ICANN’  for background on ICANN’s failure to make Joker.com honor its accreditation agreement with regard to the UDRP or accurate whois data. 

More comments on the House hearing here via ICANNWatch.