But an author selling an e-book or a lone developer earning a side income from ads should not be required to publish their home address and cell phone numbers. This is ridiculous.
Somehow I doubt that the definition will be a reasonable one, given everything else in the article.
At the same time, it should be perfectly reasonable for a business to hire a registered agent and supply their contact information. The point is that the business be reachable.
Why should I be required to publish my home address just because I run ads on my website? If I sell ebooks and someone wants to dispute their purchase they're free to do a chargeback on their card if I run off with their money.
Whatever stupid requirements ICANN introduces, the real scammers will easily bypass them while legitimate sellers will be robbed of their privacy.
I would rather have a restricted whois database, where the authorities can look at the street address, but Average Joe can not.
That's silly. I, as an individual, am a business: I perform work in return for pay, just as a business provides goods and services in return for payment. If the work I do is writing a blog, and the payment comes from ads or subscriptions, I should be permitted not to have my home address broadcast to all and sundry.
(on a related note, I should also be able to deduct expenses like a business does for tax purposes, but that's a different topic)
Individuals have privacy rights. Businesses do not. The EU is very clear on this. The European Privacy Directive covers individual privacy. The European Directive on Electronic Commerce covers business privacy online. They're very different.