[ppml] Last Call for Comment: Policy Proposal 2003-3

[Ian Baker]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Michael.Dillon at radianz.com>
To: <ppml at arin.net>
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 5:25 PM
Subject: Re: [ppml] Last Call for Comment: Policy Proposal 2003-3


> >WHO SHOULD BE IN THE DATABASE
>
> >   DCA requests that each individual with a directory on an ARPANET or
> >   MILNET host, who is capable of passing traffic across the DoD
> >   Internet, be registered in the NIC WHOIS Database.  MILNET TAC users
> >   must be registered in the database."
>
> That's the RFC origins which I paraphrased earlier. But I also said
> that whois was apparently established for funding reasons, i.e. to
> identify the users of a resource that someone else was paying for
> as part of justifying that funding. Here is a DDN management bulletin
> regarding TAC users that might clarify this:
> http://www.phreak.org/archives/The_Hacker_Chronicles_II/network2/26.txt
>
> The way things stand now, there is no good documented reason whatsoever
> for having any sort of whois directory including ARIN's SWIP database.
> The only justifications in the documents are, 1) tradition, 2) the need
> for military research network users to justify their funding. We could
> always punt the problem in the general direction of the IETF and ICANN
> but, somehow I think we could come up with a more reasonable solution
> within ARIN.

I'd read that paragraph again, if I were you - the bit that starts with
"designed to be user friendly" and continues "strongly encourages network
hosts to provide their users with access".

Now, you've just stated that "there is no good documented reason", and
followed with "the only justifications in the documents", which is a bit
self-contradictory for yourself and picky of me to point out.

So, assuming that this searchable list can be considered a document, how
about "WHOIS is very useful in fighting spam and other 'net abuse". There.
That's published.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=spam+whois&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&meta=

Gets you a "few" more. The number isn't readily quantifiable, so I've
resorted to the Google/DejaNews archive - the first of such use published on
Usenet (and retained) seems to be from 1990, with a total of around 126k in
the archive. The discussion that we're having right now would appear to have
surfaced on Usenet in 1989...

Now, among the things that would be less than useful to people trying to
trace spam (who, for example, have been unable to get a decent response from
the quite probably overworked AUP team of a large ISP) is the prospect of
deleting the entire contents and starting from scratch.

All I'm saying is that - for the majority of the /users/ of said data,
unintended , untidy, or otherwise - the idea that you proposed would make
life a lot more difficult. There's proof enough outside of the US if you
care to look into what can happen if information is dumped.

This is, in any event, straying further and further from the actual proposal
under discussion; which I would be happy to support.

Regards,

Ian Baker
Webmaster, codecutters.org