There have been some complaints within the domain community about the new Registrant Search Tool introduced by DomainTools.    Some people are afraid that information in the database could be used against them, and at this juncture, there isn’t an opt-out method.

There is one way in which the domain community can be helped by this tool: tracking a domain thief.    I recently read about a specific domain name that may be stolen.    By plugging the PO Box # and City from the Whois information, I can trace it to several other domain registrations.    Not only would this allow someone to contact the former owners of those names to possibly discover other thefts, it could also potentially allow someone to track the thief down based on names he already sold.

The expense is still too great for me to volunteer to do this, but if it were to be less expensive, it might be worth an effort.