[arin-ppml] Whois Archival Policy?

[Michael Sinatra]

Owen DeLong wrote:
> From: http://www.47-usc-230c2.org
> 
> (Seven weeks ago, during my phone conversation with ARIN officials 
> relating to the /SF Bay Packet Radio/ IP address block, I requested from 
> ARIN a copy of their archived WHOIS record for the 134.17.0.0/16 IP 
> address block, as it existed on any date prior to the formation of Mr. 
> Mulligan's /SF Bay Packet Radio, LLC/. ARIN declined my request on the 
> basis of their lack of a "policy" under which such archival and formerly 
> publicly available WHOIS data could be provided by ARIN to members of 
> the media or other interested parties.) 
> 
> 
> I'd like to find out from members of the community how they feel about 
> the idea of having such a policy.
> 
> Should we develop a policy allowing ARIN to release historical WHOIS 
> records?

Yes.

> Should there be  any restrictions on the circumstances under which ARIN 
> would do so?
> 
> If so, what should those restrictions be?

One thing would be feasible access to the information, and, as Dave 
Farmer pointed out (and you mention below), staff time.  However, those 
details can be worked out as the policy process progresses.  Technical 
means for preserving the information for everyone can be worked out by 
ARIN staff.

> My initial inclination is that since this is entirely data which was, at 
> one time, publicly available, publishing it again is entirely 
> appropriate. I can even see some valid use cases for a "whois wayback 
> machine", such as wanting to know the history of an address block.

Even more so, because the data was once public, anyone could archive it 
by making repeated copies of bulk whois under current ARIN policy.  They 
could also modify the archival data to suit their own agenda.  Having an 
official ARIN archive helps to ensure the integrity of the archival data.

> In fairness, I have not yet asked ARIN staff about the difficulty of 
> making such data available, so, I don't know whether this is feasible or 
> not. I would, first, like to get a sense from the community of how they 
> feel about development of such a policy.

I think, given recent events, it's worth moving forward so that we can 
at least see how messy it gets.

michael