Why do I need to sign an agreement with a sponsoring LIR or the RIPE NCC?
The RIPE community accepted the policy "Contractual Requirements for Provider Independent Resource Holders in the RIPE NCC Service Region" in 2009. The policy document says that End Users of Provider Independent Resources need to have a contractual relationship with the RIPE NCC either through a sponsoring LIR or directly with the RIPE NCC for the purposes of managing the resources assigned to them.
