[arin-ppml] Draft Policy ARIN-2025-1: Clarify ISP and LIR Definitions and References to Address Ambiguity in NRPM Text

[Dale W. Carder]

Thus spake ARIN (info at arin.net) on Wed, Jan 29, 2025 at 05:32:59PM -0500:
> On 24 January 2025, the ARIN Advisory Council (AC) accepted "ARIN-prop-339: Clarify ISP and LIR Definitions and References to Address Ambiguity in NRPM Text" as Draft Policy. 
> 
> Draft Policy ARIN-2025-1 is below and can be found at:
> 
> https://www.arin.net/participate/policy/drafts/2025_1

<snip>

> FROM:
>
> 2.4. Local Internet Registry (LIR)
> 
> A Local Internet Registry (LIR) is primarily an IR that assigns IP addresses to the users of the network services that it provides. LIRs are generally Internet Service Providers (ISPs) whose customers are primarily end users and possibly other ISPs.
> 
> TO:
> 
> 2.4. Local Internet Registry (LIR) 
> 
> A Local Internet Registry (LIR) is an IR that assigns IP addresses to the users of the network services that it provides. LIRs are generally Internet Service Providers (ISPs) whose customers are primarily end users and possibly other ISPs. The term LIR originates from and is in more common use in other RIR regions.

Removing the first "primarily" seems to make sense to me.

I would not add the last sentence, as I think it distracts rather than
adds clarification.  For purposes of ARIN policy, the term LIR
originates right here, in section 2.4.  (For that matter it's been here
since at least things were restructured in 2004.1, and has been well
defined globally since RFC2025 / BCP12 from the mid-1990's).  Further, I
don't like that the sentence implies that one should acquire an
understanding of the nuances of all other RIRs, particularly for the
vast majority of organizations using this policy that will only ever 
use the ARIN registry.

> Add definition for ISP:
> 
> 2.18 Internet Service Provider
> 
> An Internet Service Provider (ISP) is a type of LIR organization that provides Internet services to other organizations, its customers, and\or individuals other than its employees. Internet services
include, but are not limited to, connectivity services, web services, colocation, dedicated servers,virtual private servers, and virtual private networks.

I like this, particularly in that it clarifies hosting, cloud things, 
and so on fall into this category.

> Comments:
> 
> This proposal was submitted after the abandonment of Proposal 2024-6, which proposed clarifying 6.5.1a´s language. The community feedback indicated a more explicit approach was desired to remove ambiguity, resulting in this follow up proposal. 

Overall I think it looks pretty good and this proposal addresses the 
concerns I had from the previous effort.  A possible downside is that 
it's slightly verbose stylistically, but I think the compromise is 
worth it.
 
Dale