As you know I really tend for more privacy, but not because I disagree with law enforcement needs in the broad sense, including antispam/antiphishing etc. However, I can tell you that the EU law does work, in the sense that even if your data aren't published, police can get to know who you are with a phone call
Gee, here we go again. There are lots of people other than the police who make legitimate use of WHOIS data. Much of the time they're working with the police, who do not have the staff or expertise to do investigations on their own. Really, I am as enthusiastic about personal privacy as anyone, but it's largely irrelevant to WHOIS because in most domains, the vast majority of registrations are by businesses and organizations, not by individuals. It would make far more sense to have an exception process along the lines of the current proxy WHOIS for the small minority of individual registrants than to do wholesale hiding of information about businesses. It is of course true that registries and registrars have to comply with their national laws, but it is my impression that advocates of anonymous registrations are misrepresenting what's actually in WHOIS. R's, John