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

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

> If I has the home address for Osama Bin Laden, I assure you 
> that the US military would make things "all better"

Not really. The US military had the home address of
Saddam Hussein and proceeded to bomb the crap out of
them, killing some of his associates in the process.
But they didn't get Saddam. There are no guarantees
that Osama will be home when the US Military comes
calling, and more importantly, Osama is a powerless
irrelevant figure who no longer has any substantial
command and control over the people who perpetrate
terrorist attacks in his name. Not to mention the
martyr effect which is likely 180 degrees from what
you really want.

I'll bet that 50 years from now, secret CIA archives will
be opened and we discover that they have known where
Osama was years ago, and have conciously followed a
program of chasing him so that he can't settle down,
without any intent to actually attack him and cause
hime any personal harm.

So can we drop the knee-jerk thinking and the
platitudes and get serious about what belongs in
an ARIN policy and what doesn't? As you have pointed
out, any ISP that doesn't want to handle abuse desk
calls is free to publish a list of their customers
with phone number and email address, any time they
want. They could use RWHOIS, they could use the web.

The question is, what is the SCOPE OF ARIN's RESPONSIBILITY
in this area.

--Michael Dillon