[arin-ppml] Implementation of NRPM 8.3

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

On 4/22/2011 2:35 PM, John Curran wrote:
> On Apr 22, 2011, at 4:49 PM, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
>
>> Whichever your viewpoint of right, is, the problem all this boils
>> down to is that the RIR system did not choose to work through the
>> United Nations and the world's governments to have countries pass
>> laws to enforce aspects of Internet governance, the way that
>> the telephone companies did back when the phone network was being
>> extended a hundred years ago.
>
> Agreed.
>
> The "international treaty" approach has distinct strengths and weaknesses
> compared to the "multi-stakeholder, private sector led, bottom-up policy"
> approach.  We're definitely following the latter approach.
>

Not 100% though otherwise ARIN wouldn't have joined ITU - and the
focus on community-driven policy also carries a lot more weight
with the "international treaty" crowd than it does with the courts
(who many times don't give a rat's ass what most people want)

If the RIR system did get pushed into the treaty mechanism at some
future date, ARIN would be in a lot stronger position because of these
actions.

As more time passes without major problems, though, chances of that
get dimmer.  And I suspect that if ARIN and the RIR system make it
through IPv4 runout essentially intact, then it is highly unlikely
it ever will.

>> This leaves ARIN and the RIR's with an Achilles heel - which is that
>> their ability to enforce policy is dependent on the mechanisms that
>> the various countries governments have provided for commercial
>> transactions.  Those governments are susceptible to political pressure
>> by moneyed interests, so when a Mickeysoft or other big-buck player
>> decides that something ARIN is doing is something they don't
>> like, they can bring pressure to bear on the politicians, who
>> then can interfere with the very mechanism that ARIN has to
>> enforce policy.  ARIN knows this so they have to attempt to manipulate
>> the situation to keep those big-buck players from influencing
>> the government - otherwise they jeopardize the only lever they
>> have over the rest of the address holders.
>
> Actually, ARIN is quite willing and able to go to court in order to protect
> the mission of providing registration services in the region. We've done it
> before, but obvious avoid it unless absolutely necessary.
>

Not that I am taking the "avoid going to court" position but I will
point out that one of the risks of going to court in a particular
country is ending up with a judgment that interprets the registration 
agreements coming out of the NRPM one way, while other countries
interpret the registration agreements derived from the NRPM a
different and possibly incompatible way.  That would saddle the
RIR with a lot more work, could also open a loophole (ie: if an
org wants a more favorable RSA interpretation they just move their 
location to a different country) and would undermine the
community-driven policy aspect of the NRPM.

The politician in me understands and can agree with the tightrope
approach you are taking but sometimes the decisions that result from
that are enough to make anyone want to throw up.

Ted


> /John
>
> John Curran
> President and CEO
> ARIN
>
>
>