They *were* planning to release the whois database on CDROM. That is, until the story got posted on http://slashdot.org and they got hit by the "Slashdot Effect".
Didn't stop the spam about it though, I got a few of these:- ----- Begin Included Message -----
From sammy@technotrade.com Wed Sep 23 05:17:28 1998 Received: from bbcgate.bbc.co.uk by sunf0.rd.bbc.co.uk; Wed, 23 Sep 98 05:17:27 BST Received: from goose.prod.itd.earthlink.net (goose.prod.itd.earthlink.net [207.217.120.18]) by bbcgate.bbc.co.uk (8.8.5/8.7.2) with ESMTP id FAA29405 for <brandon@rd.bbc.co.uk>; Wed, 23 Sep 1998 05:17:25 +0100 (BST) From: sammy@technotrade.com Received: from mail.earthlink.net (1Cust100.tnt2.sdg1.da.uu.net [208.250.122.100]) by goose.prod.itd.earthlink.net (8.8.7/8.8.5) with SMTP id VAA12849; Tue, 22 Sep 1998 21:16:21 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199809230416.VAA12849@goose.prod.itd.earthlink.net> To: massmail_to_admins@technotrade.com Date: Wed, 23 Sep 98 21:13:51 EST Subject: InterNIC Email Addresses CD: $249
NOW AVAILABLE: Every email address of every domain admin/tech/billing contact on the internet! Only $249: http://domainsondisk.com or http://domainsondisc.com Domains On Disc is the most up-to-date, complete and searchable list of contact information for every registered .com, .net, .edu and .org domain name on the Internet. You may now email offers for your products/services to 100,000's of prospects for pennies... GUERILLA MARKETING AT ITS FINEST!!!!!!!!!! The internet will never be the same again! ----- End Included Message -----