Interestingly, something like this might be in store for federal agencies as a result of a little-noticed law, the Federal Data Quality Act, signed by President Clinton on his way out the door. It was drafted by the pro-business Center for Regulatory Effectiveness in Washington, and inserted into the mammoth year-end appropriations bill in late 2000 by Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R., Mo.). ‘The White House noticed it and asked some questions about it, but there was so much going on—Florida, the Clinton pardons and the need to get the appropriations done—that it couldn’t be stopped,’ says Jim Tozzi, co-founder of CRE and a long-time staffer at the Office of Management and Budget.

I'd like to add that on second reading of the article, but prior to any research, I thought CRE might be some netizen information wants to be free org that perhaps wanted documents that Karl Auerbach sued for (question for Karl, did you ever see them before being purged?), and I intended to make the point that ICANN was under no compunction to answer them or meet with them (although cancelling at the last minute is very bad form). Such behavior is, after all, ICANN's Standard Operating Procedure. Having since done some research and finding that CRE is probably not working for the great unwashed, I still wanted to make that point. This seems eminently fair. It is apparently ICANN law in its majestic equality to deny access to information to the rich as well as the poor. -g