ccTLD data moving from RIPE db

[ editorial:
	I think this should move from lir-wg at ripe.net to db-wg at ripe.net
  So, for any follow-up, please use db-wg and remove lir-wg. Thanks. ]

  Alex,

>Then today I got a mail from the .IE domain registry, asking me to remove 
>entries from the RIPE DB for some .ie domains I have.

  The RIPE NCC, or the RIPE community never had any authority over the
  ccTLD name tree in the RIPE-DB.
  
  The individual sub-trees were (some still are) managed by the respective
  TLDs. So, from that point of view, the request in itself is probably
  valid.

> So far so good, 
>except that the .ie domain registry does not have a functional whois 
>database to which we can move this data. If I comply, the data will no 
>longer be accessible from any whois databse.

  Well, not necessarily so. What "we" (the people and groups involved to
  migrate the name sub-trees to dedicated registries, maintined by the
  TLDs) had in mind was to preserve the "single point of entry" for the
  RIPE region to query domain names.
  
  To that end, the DB software was extended to support a referral
  mechanism. Assuming that this technology is deployed, you could still
  send your query to whois.ripe.net and the software would try to find a
  referred-to server which is authoritative for the name-tree.
  
  The RIPE server would then forward the request and send the answer back
  to the client.

  Quite a few TLD registries, which already have moved away from using the
  RIPE DataBase have completed that setup. Others are in the process of
  fixing migration problems. Other, obviously, have decided to _not_ use
  that option. Sigh.
  
  I'm still working with the RIPE NCC's DB group and CENTR to fixing
  deployment problems related to the referral mechanism.
  
  A couple of days ago, a summary page has become available on CENTR's
  server:
  
	http://www.centr.org/technical/ripe-db.html

>Is this therefore a valid request?
>
>Thanks,

  Best regards
  Wilfried (DB-WG chair)
 _________________________________:_____________________________________
  Wilfried Woeber                 : e-mail: Woeber at CC.UniVie.ac.at
  UniVie Computer Center - ACOnet : Tel: +43 1 4277 - 140 33
  Universitaetsstrasse 7          : Fax: +43 1 4277 - 9 140
  A-1010 Vienna, Austria, Europe  : RIPE-DB: WW144, PGP keyID 0xF0ACB369
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  The strange thing about common sense is that it is so uncommon. Buddah