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

[William Herrin]

On Wed, Sep 17, 2025 at 9:21 AM Owen DeLong via ARIN-PPML
<arin-ppml at arin.net> wrote:
> Exactly what Jay said. David’s definitions are livable, but why not join
> the rest of the world in using globally accepted terminology rather than
> contorting the definition of ISP because we can.

Hi Owen,

Because using the same term as the rest of the world might lead people
to think it means the same thing here that it does there. Which it
doesn't. But you already knew that.

For anyone who doesn't know what I'm digging at: ARIN doesn't delegate
address management to countries and states as happens in other
regions. Those regions call country-level registries "local," as in
Local Internet Registry (LIR). We _could_ do that if we changed the
policies that way, but it would be a major change: not  just picking
preferred terminology.

Instead, ARIN lets organizations which provide network infrastructure
to their customers manage the IP addresses used with that
infrastructure. You know: providers of Internet service, sometimes
called ISPs.

Regards,
Bill Herrin


-- 
William Herrin
bill at herrin.us
https://bill.herrin.us/