Policy Proposal: ISP to LIR Clarification

[Member Services]

ARIN received the following policy proposal. In accordance with the ARIN
Internet Resource Policy Evaluation Process, the proposal is being
posted to the ARIN Public Policy Mailing List (PPML) and being placed on
ARIN's website.

The ARIN Advisory Council (AC) will review this proposal at their next
regularly scheduled meeting. The AC may decide to:

   1. Accept the proposal as a formal policy proposal as written. If the
AC accepts the proposal, it will be posted as a formal policy proposal
to PPML and it will be presented at a Public Policy Meeting.

   2. Postpone their decision regarding the proposal until the next
regularly scheduled AC meeting in order to work with the author. The AC
will work with the author to clarify, combine or divide the proposal. At
their following meeting the AC will accept or not accept the proposal.

   3. Not accept the proposal. If the AC does not accept the proposal,
the AC will explain their decision. If a proposal is not accepted, then
the author may elect to use the petition process to advance their
proposal. If the author elects not to petition or the  petition fails,
then the proposal will be closed.

The AC will assign shepherds in the near future. ARIN will provide the
names of the shepherds to the community via the PPML.

In the meantime, the AC invites everyone to comment on this proposal on
the PPML, particularly their support or non-support and the reasoning
behind their opinion. Such participation contributes to a thorough
vetting and provides important guidance to the AC in their deliberations.

The ARIN Internet Resource Policy Evaluation Process can be found at:
http://www.arin.net/policy/irpep.html

Mailing list subscription information can be found at:
http://www.arin.net/mailing_lists/

Regards,

Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)


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Policy Proposal Name: ISP to LIR Clarification

Author: Leo Bicknell

Proposal Version: 1.0

Submission Date: 8/17/2007

Proposal type: modify

Policy term: permanent

Policy statement:

Replace all instances of the word "ISP" in the NRPM with the word "LIR"
and replace all instances of the phrase "LIR/ISP" with "LIR", except for
the following:

* Leave section 2.4 unchanged.
* Leave section 2.7 unchanged.
* In section 4.1.1, replace "ISPs" with "requesters".
* In section 4.2, also remove "Internet Service Providers".
* Leave section 6.2.4 unchanged.
* Leave section 6.3.4 unchanged.
* In section 6.9, replace "ISPs and LIRs" with "LIRs" for all three
occurrence.

Rationale:

The NRPM is inconsistent.  The terms ISP and LIR are used
interchangeably throughout the document, with the term ISP being
predominant in the IPv4 sections and the term LIR being predominant in
the IPv6 sections.

The use of the term ISP poses two different problems:

1) The term has meaning outside of ARIN's policy.  Multiple discussions
    on PPML have degenerated over people arguing what an ISP is with
    regards to policy when the reality is that the relationship is
    defined in the NRPM.  As LIR has no meaning outside of policy
    this confusion will be removed.

2) The other four RIRs have standardized on LIR.  This change will make
    it easier for those doing business with more than one LIR to use
    consistent terms.

This change does not alter any policy, it merely makes the policy easier
to understand.

Timetable for implementation:  immediate