[ppml] Policy Proposal 2003-15: IPv4 Allocation Policy for the Africa Portion of the ARIN Region

[Owen DeLong]

> This brings up a new question for me.  When AfriNIC becomes a reality are
> they going to implement this policy any way?  If so, we may as well do it
> now.  I don't agree with it, but if it's a future reality why wait.
>
We don't know what AfriNIC or who AfriNIC will be _IF_ it ever actually
exists.  We think it probably will exist at some indeterminant point in
the future.  We have some reason to believe that there may, at this time,
be enough support for this in Africa that if it did exist right now, this
policy might pass.

To me, that is far from a certain future reality.

> Is there any accountability on the part of a RIR to the other RIR's or to
> ICAAN?  For example, could RIPE implement some policies that are good for
> their members, but are obviously poor for the Internet community as a
> whole?
>
As near as I can tell, the only accountability to ICANN for anything is
whatever integrity exists within the body.  Verisign has no integrity and
appears to have no accountability to ICANN.  ARIN, RIPE, and APNIC, while
I do not agree with them on all fronts, appear to have significant integrity
and thus hold themselves accountable to ICANN policies.

In any case where any registry can implement any policy, someone could argue
that said policy is good for the registries members, but bad for the 
internet
community.  I know of no clear way to make this determination other than on
a case-by case basis, and, it is unclear who gets to make said 
determination.

However, I still think this policy should be rolled into 2002-3 and made
global.

Owen