Why Is Internic Restricting WHOIS Queries?

Ötti asks: "I just noticed that InterNIC started to restrict access to its WHOIS database. That puts sites like Allwhois into an awkward situation, since they cannot provide lookups anymore. That might sound like a minor problem to those of you located in the U.S., but in other parts of the world it is very convenient to have a unified interface to all registrars in the world. And once again it raises the ultimate questions: Who owns the informations on domain name holders? Why is it not publicly accessible and how can organizations like ICANN help to improve matters?"