[arin-discuss] The joy of SWIPping

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

> Both of these examples really happened.  We lost both 
> customers and the police had to get involved.

Quite frankly you should sue ARIN for damages when
things like this happen, if you can afford it. You might
even find that once the lawsuit is under way, some law school 
will cover your costs in order to establish some case law.

ARIN is kowtowing to the interests of vigilante groups who
have appointed themselves as the Internet police. Once someone
takes this through the courts, I expect them to rule that ARIN
cannot force PUBLICATION of this data regardless of how useful
the data may be to vigilantes.

The fact is that the vigilantes scream louder than ARIN members
and therefore it is the interests of the vigilantes that shape 
ARIN policy.

> One other question for everyone out there that's sort of 
> related, How do you reconcile posting customer information in 
> a public database with your privacy policy?

We use RWHOIS and there is nothing in there but a company name
and a city. Since most of our customers are large enough to have
multiple locations, even in one city, this doesn't give anything
away that isn't already in various sales materials. No street
addresses and no zip codes. None of your business. If ARIN wants
more info for additional address block applications, then we promptly
supply it under their NDA.

--Michael Dillon