This question has to do with finding and identifying users on the
Internet and forensic analysis.  My first question has to do with
whois servers.  Why are there so many whois servers on the net??  I
see dozens listed in the database of smartwhois.  What is there
function??  Are there official whois databases managed by ICANN?  I
recently registered a new domain name and found that I could find it
using allwhois.com, but the name didn't show up the other databases. 
Just for fun I looked up my existing domain using allwhois.com and it
said that access was denied.  They blamed Verisign for this.  My next
question is related:  are the whois services for IP addresses managed
by ICANN.  Are there official whois databases managed by arin, ripe
and apnic??  In other words are those the final answer on ownership of
IP addresses??

Hello Fwscholl,

Thanks for your question.

Well, this confusion all started after the US Government deregulated
the Registrar business back in 1999.  Previous to that, a company
called Network solutions (www.netsol.com) was the only game in town. 
They controlled the database for all the top-level domains. (com, net,
org and edu)  After deregulation, there was never any agreement
reached between the Registrars about keeping a centralized database. 
That is why there are so many whois servers out there.  Each one is an
island onto itself simply because the Registrars don't feel like
cooperating with each other.  Fortunately, there are some sites out
there that can save you some time.  I personally use betterwhois.com. 
They seem to have just about every Registrars whois server listed with
them.  Onto your second question, ICANN(www.icann.org) sets policy for
what the global standard should be for configurations and such, but I
do not believe they personally manage anyone’s whois server.  They
are, however, responsible for coordinating activities with the 13 root
name servers that the Internet depends upon.  The companies,
Arin(www.arin.net), Ripe(www.ripe.net), and APNIC(www.apnic.net) are
responsible for maintaining the global IP address namespace.  They
decide who gets what numbers and they are responsible for making sure
we never run out of them.  They each provide their own database of IP
addresses for the particular region they are responsible for.  Here is
a link to some information about them:

RIR's
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/759/ipj_4-4/ipj_4-4_regional.html

I believe the entity that has the final say on IP address ownership is
the US Government.  There are many issues that still have not been
decided, and the rest of the world wants a larger share of
responsibility for managing this patchwork monster we have created. 
ICANN may even turn out to be a lame duck in a few years.  It is a
complicated issue that probably won't see any resolution for a long
time to come.  I hope this helps.

Best Regards,

watershed-ga

Answer was good and had helpful links.