[address-policy-wg] 2006-04 Draft Document will be produced (Contact e-mail Address Requirements)

>     http://www.ripe.net/ripe/policies/proposals/2006-04.html

This policy is directed at ISPs and at their customers.

>Registration data (range, contact information, status etc.) 
>must be correct at all times (i.e. they have to be maintained). 
>Every organisation controlling an IP address should provide 
>at least one working contact e-mail address where notifications 
>of abuse emanating from that IP address can be sent.

A company in the SPAM business could be in full compliance
with this policy if they operate an auto-responder like
RIPE's hostmaster mailbox, which replies to every email
saying "Thank you for your concern. We will deal with 
the matter promptly". The net benefit to the Internet
community would be zero.

>All persons and organisations assigned an IP address should 
>act to prevent abusive messages originating from that IP address. 

I don't believe that RIPE has any authority over what 
ISP customers do with their Internet connection. If
a customer has a contract with and ISP for the purposes
of originating abusive messages, then what authority
does RIPE have to forbid this? On the other hand, if this
is something which should be forbidden, who is the proper
authority to take action? My answers are "None" and 
"National governments".

A few days ago, whilst riding the tube to work, I was
looking over someone's shoulder reading the newspaper.
It was one of the cheap tabloids, possible the Sun.
There was an advert for a company that offered to send
abusive phone messages to someone else for a fee. It
was an 0900 number which you dialled, then selected from
a menu of message types, and then gave the number to be
called. The choices were "Stop seeing my boyfriend", "Stop
seeing my girlfriend", "Last notice to pay parking fine",
"Mortgage reposession of home", etc.

Clearly, there is at least one UK business that has
a contract with a UK phone company for the purpose of
originating abusive messages. Apparently, the regulator
does not prohibit this, although maybe they simply don't
know about it yet. In any case, the problem of sending
abusive messages clearly does exist outside the Internet
therefore it is NOT an Internet problem. If abusive messages
are considered bad by society, then society should pass
a law in the usual way rather than foisting unenforceable
rules on the RIPE community.

--Michael Dillon
P.S. I am opposed to sending abusive messages and I 
would like to see them disappear from the Internet.
But I also do not believe that any technical measures
targetted at abusive messages will ever work since the
perpetrators just discover new ways to avoid those 
measures. I really don't want to give the perpetrators
an incentive to corrupt RIPE or the RIPE NCC which
is what I believe will happen if RIPE gets in their way.