Russ First of all the SOCA 5 Cs document has absolutely nothing to do with WHOIS access or display. It's to with whois data validation and verification. It's also not even about IP address space and was actually aimed at domain names. With regard to your comments I have never had any issue accessing any whois data for the RIPE region (or any other region for that matter) If law enforcement or anyone else who was not using the data for commercial gain was having issues then I'm sure that it would be addressed.
The point is if you cannot access the data it does not matter if it is verified so it is interrelated. When you do a security check it is prudent to check the IP address as well as the domain so access to the vagarious whois databases (domains and IP's) is interrelated. May people are complaining about RIPE whois access as well as access to many domain registrars. You are not the only person using the Internet but your attitude is common among self-proclaimed abuse experts. The only thing that matters is their person experience and not the many millions of Internet users. You personally sit on some of these ICANN whois committees and it is clear you are not considering all the relevant issues (see my ICANN comments to the whois and fake renewal committees). The point is that a small group of people with limited experience sit on all these committees and most users are locked out of the process and people like you go around ridiculing people and trying to get them to drop out of the process. The issue has not fully been addressed because RIPE will not release the legal opinions related to whois access (something you go out of your way to avoid addressing). Thank You