[ppml] [arin-discuss] /29 limit for ARIN SWIP whois

[Leo Bicknell]

In a message written on Tue, Jan 08, 2008 at 04:10:44PM -0800, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
> Your argument is kind of like arguing that there's no need for license
> plates on the back of passenger cars, because they can only seat 4
> people, that the only vehicles that need license plates are trucks
> and buses.  In short, it's interesting and I found it amusing, but not
> realistic.

No.  My argument is that there's no need for everyone to put their
name, address and phone number on the back of their car.  If you
see a car run a red light you don't get to show up at Bob's home
with a baseball bat and beat him up; you get to call authorities
and give them the license plate number, which they can look up and
track down.

If someone is comitting a crime from an IP address the right thing
to do is call the police, not make the information available for a
self-appointed lynch mob to show up at the person's door.

Every packet already has a license plate, an "IP Address".  It's a
nice, unique identifier.  Law enforcement does not need Whois to
be publically accessable to track down who owns that IP address;
but they do like the convenience.  All making that information
available to the public does is lead to vigilante justice.  I suspect
when someone is murdered because their computer was spamming and
someone looked up their address in whois and went over and killed
them that law enforcement may start to see the value in having the
database not be public.

-- 
       Leo Bicknell - bicknell at ufp.org - CCIE 3440
        PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
Read TMBG List - tmbg-list-request at tmbg.org, www.tmbg.org
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