[arin-ppml] Territorialize the Internet (Was: Draft Policy ARIN-2013-6: Allocation of IPv4 and IPv6 Address Space to Out-of-region Requestors)

[Milton L Mueller]

> -----Original Message-----

> Is requiring accurate documentation in the registry of what
> jurisdiction addresses are use in a reasonable start to such detente?

[Milton L Mueller] This is not what 2013-6 proposes to do. 
 
> I don't think it is practical to limit where addresses are used, but I
> don't think it is unreasonable to require that where they are used be
> documented.  

[Milton L Mueller] Again, this is not what 2013-6 proposes to do. It's very important that we not get confused about that. 
Here is what it proposes: 

"...must provide ARIN with proof of an established legal presence in the designated ARIN region, and have a majority of their technical infrastructure and customers in the designated ARIN region."

So, they are not proposing to document where numbers are used, they are proposing to regulate who can get numbers based on the "legal presence" of the applicant and the geographical location of technical infrastructure and customers. It is, in fact, a crude and not very well thought out attempt to jurisdictionalize the internet.

This proposal is not "détente" but a demand for surrender. It would fundamentally alter criteria for number resource allocation in order to give LEAs minimal gains in efficiency (possibly none). For those minimal, possibly nonexistent gains for a mission unrelated to ARIN's it would fundamentally subvert the governance model. But it doesn't even accomplish its stated goal, because ARIN is regional, not national. The only way for the stated LEA concerns to be fully met is to abolish RIRs and allocated exclusively by NIRs. And of course that wouldn't work because many internet services are, and should remain, both transnational and trans-regional.