In message <[email protected]>, Michael Peddemors <[email protected]> wrote:
>Allow the community at large to 'register' complaints, but instead of >having it sent to what for all intents and purposes can seem like a an >opaque resolution process, have such complaints registered as publicly >searchable 'tickets'. I, for one, would vigorously come out in support of this, *if* I didn't think that my doing so would immediately, inevitably, and irrevocably doom this simple proposal to abject failure, if not also to near universal condemnation. (1/2 :-) But seriously, as already noted by others, ARIN currently labors under a fundamental lack of ability or means to meaningfully enforce various existing and community-approved regulations, as already formalized and codified in the NRPM. Given that, it would seem to be a rather obviously pointless exercise in silliness -either- for people to message ARIN to request it to open "cases" or "tickets" -or- for ARIN to dedicate any staff time or energy into researching the particulars of any such case or tickets when, at the end of the day, they have no community-approved means to do anything about it, regardless of the outcome of any such investigation(s). In similar situtations, where the law and its enforcement become so radically disconnected that the law itself falls into disrepute and ridicule, there are usually one of two outcomes, i.e. either (a) vigilantism or (b) public naming and shaming (or sometimes both). I suspect that on this list, at least, there would be general agreement with the proposition that vigilantism is actually -not- the preferable outcome in this case. In contrast however, the general idea of having a place where reports which are sent to ARIN regarding possible violations of NPRM regulations would be on public display would seem to have a number of advantages, both for the community and for ARIN. Firstly, it would arguably relieve and absolve ARIN from responsibility for either the investigation of such reports, and/or from the responsibility, legal and otherwise, which might otherwise accrue to ARIN as a result of its publication of findings and/or its action or inaction with regards to any given case. Members of the ARIN community, and of the worldwide Internet user base generally, including myself, can and do already investigate many issues that often touch on clear and apparent NRPM violations, and we simply lack a proper forum to share the resulting information with all interested parties. (I suspect that everyone will agree that the PPML is -not- actually the best or most appropriate place to document the failings of this or that specific ARIN customer.) If a public blog, or forum, or some such thing (which would be searchable by IP address, or CIDR, or ASN, or WHOIS handle) was created by ARIN, made a part of the ARIN web site, and then opened for public submissions relating to purported NRPM violations, it seems entirely likely to me that ARIN would then, and at virtually no cost, benefit from obtaining relevant data about specific trouble spots from an entire planet's worth of investigators... investigators who would then have a means to coordinate, and to share and exchange information about such trouble spots in an open forum. And this kind of information, from outside investigators, might in some cases rival or even surpass what ARIN might be able to discover, via its own internal investigations. (And in any case, it would certainly cost less, as ARIN would be getting the information for free.) Secondly, the community would benefit from more open communications about the various direct ARIN customers who are simply not following the community-endorsed (NRPM) rules. Exactly such open communications, even when not leading to formal ARIN actions (as I expect they wouldn't in virtually all cases), would tend to have the effects of public naming and shameing of the scofflaws, thus encouraging compliance with NRPM mandates without resort to formal ARIN enforcement and/or its attendant potential for sticky, annoying, time-consuming and expensive legal entanglements. In short, this seems like a win-win-win. ARIN wins by getting off the hook for investigating and/or "actioning" NRPM violations that it doesn't really have either the clear mandate or the funding to either investigate or action anyway, and the community gets more transparency, a kinder, gentler, and less expensive way to disipline the scofflaws, along with a smaller legal liability footprint for ARIN.[1] And lastly, troublemakers like me get a place to vent spleen and document the specific non-NRPM-conformant actions of various ARIN direct and indirect customers... politely, of course... while contributing to the community's (and ARIN's) knowledge of who is, and who isn't following the rules. As a friend of mine once said "The only thing wrong with that idea is that *I* didn't think of it first." Regards, rfg P.S. In addition to all of the other benefits noted above, the creation of an open forum, were reports regarding NRPM violations could be publically lodged, would benefit ARIN by being a clear refutation of the criticisms that have occasionally been leveled at it, here and elsewhere, to the effect that its internal processes are opaque, inscrutable, and non-transparent, either deliberately or otherwise. What could be more transparent than an open public forum? Note that I am -not- -not- -not- suggesting that any member of ARIN staff would be or should be encouraged to -participate- in or on any such hypothetical forum. Nor am I suggesting for one second that ARIN should deviate in the slightest from its historical and appropriate tight-lipped approach to any and all matters that may implicate actual enforcement actions, somewhere down the road. But even without any active participation by any ARIN staff, an open public forum for the open publication and sharing of information about NRPM violations would signal to the world ARIN's commitment to transparency, and specifically, transparency in the service of the ARIN community and the rules it has adopted, democratically, via the consent of the governed. ========== [1] Note that just as with all ISPs and all operators of open web site forums, ARIN would have blanket and absolute protection from legal liability for anything that anyone outside of ARIN might post to any such hypothetical blog, under the unambiguous and courtroom-tested provisions of 47 USC 230(c)(1). _______________________________________________ PPML You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to the ARIN Public Policy Mailing List ([email protected]). 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