[arin-ppml] Petition for Discussion of ARIN-prop-136

[Benson Schliesser]

As the author of ARIN-prop-136, abandoned by the Advisory Council during their 17-Mar-2011 meeting, I hereby initiate a Discussion Petition of this proposal per the Policy Development Process.

In support of this petition, I offer the following considerations:

(1) Proposal 136 is fundamentally a recognition of legacy address holders' rights, including the right of self-determination.  The ARIN community must recognize the rights of all participants in order to remain fair and equitable, and should recognize these rights in order to remain relevant in the Internet ecosystem.

(2) In the event of conflict between ARIN policy and the actions of legacy address holders, prioritization of Whois data accuracy is in the community interest.  Cooperation with legacy address holders will be more effective than attempts at "enforcement" and will result in more accurate information.  Proposal 136 will enable cooperation with legacy address holders while maintaining useful information in the distributed Whois system.

(3) There is pending legal controversy that may be relevant to the ARIN community, which may materially influence our understanding of legacy address holders' rights.  Some results of this controversy might emerge prior to the next public policy meeting, and must be discussed with appropriate timeliness.  Proposal 136 will provide a much-needed focal point for such discussion.

Additionally, I would offer the following observation about the process by which proposal 136 was abandoned:  Specific opinions opposing this proposal were offered by an ARIN officer, to the AC and others.  These opinions were offered with an inappropriately definitive tone and may have influenced the premature abandonment of discussion.  It is in the interest of the community to continue discussion of this proposal and to develop a better understanding of the issues.

It is my committed intent, as author and petitioner, to collaborate with the community on the development of this proposal.  If this Discussion Petition is successful I will welcome input from the Advisory Council and ARIN community, as well as other Internet stakeholders and legal experts.  I look forward to continued discussion and development of this proposal.

The current text of ARIN-prop-136 is included below, as posted at http://lists.arin.net/pipermail/arin-ppml/2011-February/020159.html for reference.

Cheers,
-Benson

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ARIN-prop-136: Services Opt-out Allowed for Unaffiliated Address Blocks

Proposal Originator:  Benson Schliesser

Proposal Version:  1

Date:  23 Feb 2011

Proposal type:  New

Policy term:  Permanent

Policy statement:

Add the following to the NRPM:

13.  Unaffiliated Address Blocks

13.x. Opt-out Allowed

ARIN provides IP address registry services to all IP address holders in
the ARIN region, for all IP address resources that are not registered by
another RIR, regardless of whether any given address holder has entered
into a services agreement.  However, ARIN will cease providing any
registry services for specific IP address resources in the event that
the legitimate address holder of an unaffiliated address block, that is
an address block that is not covered by an ongoing services agreement,
chooses to opt-out of receiving any or all registry services from ARIN.

13.x.1. Requirements for Whois Opt-out

In order for an opt-out request for Whois directory services to be
valid, the legitimate address holder must agree to provide a replacement
directory service reflecting operationally accurate allocation and
assignment information for the specified IP number resources.  ARIN will
create generic placeholder entries in the ARIN Whois directory for all
IP number resources that are removed due to opt-out, and each
placeholder entry will include a reference and/or RWhois referral to the
replacement directory service.


Rationale:

This proposal does not seek to replace ARIN-prop-133 but is offered as
an exclusive alternative for consideration by the ARIN community, in
order to address concerns that it would unfairly harm legacy address
holders and/or cause unnecessary damage to the Whois database.

Policy Background:

This policy attempts to clarify the relationship that ARIN has with
legacy address holders.

Specifically, this policy recognizes that absent an agreement such as
the RSA or LRSA there is no formal relationship with legacy address
holders.  At present, however, ARIN continues to provide services to
these organizations.  This is done without compensation and potentially
in opposition to the legacy address holders' wishes.  As a result of
this behavior ARIN has created an illusion of implied authority that
exposes ARIN to unacceptable levels of liability, is hindering the
development of an open address market (driving it "underground"), and is
putting the operational stability of the Internet at risk.  As new
services such as RPKI are contemplated this situation becomes even more
critical.

This policy assumes the tacit consent of all address holders in the ARIN
region, to receive ARIN registry services and to be governed by ARIN
policy, but allows for legitimate address holders of unaffiliated
address blocks to explicitly opt-out of any and/or all services.  This
approach would allow ARIN to continue providing volunteer services to
any member of the legacy community as long as this service was not
contrary to their wishes.  Further, it would allow legacy address
holders to opt-out of some services such as Whois while continuing to
receive other services such as in-addr DNS reverse mapping.

In the event that a legacy address holder does opt-out of Whois
directory services under this policy, ARIN would require the address
holder to provide a replacement directory service and would continue to
provide a Whois pointer (such as a RWhois referral) to that service.  As
a result, the integrity of the distributed Whois database would remain
intact and be improved.

Timetable for implementation:  Immediately