[arin-discuss] The joy of SWIPping

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

> If you have questions about other 
> parts of someone's network then you contact the person 
> ultimately responsible for the IPs.  

When ARIN allocates a block to an ISP, that ISP assumes the
responsibility for those addresses. They must be READY,
WILLING and ABLE to RESPOND to queries about network issues
and they must publish their contact info in the whois directory.
I believe this is actually in the contract (RSA) that is signed
with ARIN. However, ARIN cannot force a business model on the ISP.

If the ISP wants to reassign addresses to a company but RETAIN the
RESPONSIBILITY for those addresses, that should be acceptable. One
would think that if the ISP does not have direct access to the 
customer's infrastructure, that they at least have direct contacts
with any technical people who work for the customer. And if there
really is no-one else out there, they have the power to pull the
plug until things are sorted out, and should really have a contract
with the customer in which this is clearly stated.

People who moan about data missing from the whois directory are
really trying to impose a business model on *ALL* ISPs. This is a
non-starter. Much better would be to force ISPs to REMOVE data from
the whois directory unless it leads to a contact who is READY, 
WILLING and ABLE to ACT upon queries about network issues. The end
result would be a usable whois directory.

> The purpose of SWIP and RWHOIS should be redefined as a 
> system that holds information used for contacting parties 
> responsible for the IP networks and away from a list of 
> people who may or may not know what an IP even is.

100% agree.

--Michael Dillon