Summary of the proposal:

This is a proposal to introduce a new contact attribute named "abuse-c:", which can be included in inetnum, inet6num and aut-num objects. 

The syntax will makes this an optional attribute, but business rules will require it to be included in allocations managed by the RIPE NCC Registration Services, (Note to TF: This is just for being sure the legacy space will be covered when it is added to the RIPE DB), PI assignments and AS number registrations.

It provides a more efficient way for maintainers to organize their provided information and helps to increase accuracy and efficiency in routing abuse reports to the correct network contact. In addition to that, it helps all kinds of institutions to find the correct abuse contact information more easily.

Currently within the RIPE region, it is an issue for maintainers to determine the best place to publish abuse contact information (irt, "abuse-mailbox:", "remark-fields:", and in addition to that, in which object they should be published).
As a consequence, it is an issue for all kinds of institutions to find the correct abuse contact in the variety of possibilities.

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Policy Text

This is a proposal to introduce a new contact attribute named "abuse-c:", which can be included in inetnum, inet6num and aut-num objects. 

The syntax will makes this an optional attribute, but business rules will require it to be included in allocations managed by the RIPE NCC Registration Services, (Note to TF: This is just for being sure the legacy space will be covered when it is added to the RIPE DB), PI assignments and AS number registrations.

The "abuse-c:" will reference a role object holding abuse contact information. The positioning of the abuse-c attributes will make use of the hierarchical nature of the resource data to minimize the workload on resource holders.

The role objects used for abuse contact information will be required to contain a single abuse-mailbox attribute which is intended for receiving automatic and manual reports about abusive behavior originating the resource holders networks.

Other "e-mail:" attributes can be included for private conversations between the resources holder(s teams) and external persons or institutions.

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The current query option "-b" will be extended to search for the abuse-c attribute in addition to all existing locations. If the abuse-c is found only this data will be returned. After a transition period the -b option will only search for abuse-c.
During this transitions period maintainers will be requested to reorganize their abuse contact references.

After the transition period there will be some automated clean up of users data to reorganize abuse contact references where possible.