[db-wg] objection to RIPE policy proposal 2016-01

On Sun, 28 Feb 2016, Ruediger Volk wrote:

As someone with legacy space (and who takes issue with RIPE NCC about 
certain policies) I have no problem with abuse-c.  I defined it ages ago 
on all inetnums because that is the right thing to do.

-Hank


> Dear colleagues,
>
> I object to passing the policy as proposed.
> There is no serious need for the policy,
> and at this time and under curent circumstance it would
> actually be harmful.
> I believe that the supposed good intentions would be better
> served by other actions, and the policy focussing on enforcement
> is ill advised.
>
> I understand that the current implementation of the RIPE database allows
> legacy holders to enter abuse-c attributes for their legacy resources
> if that's currently not possible the required extension of the database
> should be discussed (in the approprioate wg) and implementation would NOT
> require the PDP (as more drastic changes have been done to the database
> - and that extension hardly would contradict existing policy).
> No PDP is needed to send friendly invitations to legacy holders to populate
> their data objects with abuse-c information;
> I'm sure asking the RIPE NCC to do this would not create an undue burden
> or serious problem.
>
> Enhancing the invitations with some additional information potentially
> helpful to the recipients could be considered too:
> - some hints/guidance about expected use and support of that mailbox
>  (active members of the abuse handling community probably will NOT be the
>  typical recipient! and no injuries are expected if any community member sees
>  that information:-)
> - specific suggestions what to put into the abuse-c field
>  (whatever the RIPE NCC might use to extrapolate abuse-c from existing data)
> The working group should contribute helpful information to be included.
>
> I'm quite certain running a second invitation campaign would be even less
> of a problem and effort for RIPE NCC; I cannot predict how much the information
> provided in a later campaign can be improved based on feedback and experience
> from an earlier one.
>
> You may argue, that such more friendly approach could have been used also
> earlier - and I would very much agree and I certainly complained and
> suggested that at least the forced population of missing abuse-c should
> be postponed until friendly information was made available.
>
> Now we do NOT HAVE TO repeat past errors...
> Specifically with legacy resource holders it would be a good idea
> for RIPE community and NCC to address them with an inviting and
> helpful approach; as there is a sad history of seemingly coercive
> and unfriendly communications towards legacy holders.
>
> REPEATING the error now - even considering the much lower number of
> relevant records - is however actually MORE SERIOUS in DAMAGING
> the CREDIBILITY of the working group (and as a consequence the RIPE NCCs
> position) because of the accumulated history.
> Repeated requests for information on supposed use und handling of abuse-c
> has been answered by pointing out that it is required by a policy
> that was consciously created without any such information.
> The new policy proposal painfully fits into the sad observation that
> the anti-abuse working group as a community has constantly
> put effort into enforcing creation and population of abuse-c data
> but not (even tried) to provide to the rest of the world helpful
> explanations on requirements and expected handling at the requested mailboxes.
> That observations leads to the question whether the community is not able to
> come up with some helpful explanation or whether it does not care... :-(
> In both cases asking for enforcement does seem neither appropriate
> nor acceptable and means that the request cannot be taken serious
> - bad for the perception of RIPE and RIPE NCC activety by parties
> that are not heavily involved in the community processes.
> Consider the typical person confronted with a request to define abuse-c:
> how deeply is he involved with the anti-abuse working group
> (where a common understanding might exist - I consider myself only occassional
> observer and not a member and don't know)?
>
> Trying to close more quickly and on a more constructive perspective
> let me skip to elaborate here on my judgement:
> at close inspection the rationale and arguments look quite broken.
>
> The policy content does actually not matter that much - look for a sketch of
> a potential harmless implementation approach above in this message.
> What matters is appropriate use of the PDP (it can be abused!!!)
> and what are good goals of the working group and good ways of achieving them.
>
> The assumed good goals (as I understand it) are
> (a) improving quality of abuse-c information in order to
> (b) improve abuse reporting and report handling processes and
> (c) extending the abuse-c coverage for Internet number resources
>    in the RIPE NCC registry
>
> The policy proposal references (a) and (b) quite explicitly;
> I took the liberty to interpolate (b) which actually seems to be the
> primary goal, and it looks like the working group decided that this will
> be helped by means of creating distinctly identified mailbox information
> to be put into abuse-c.
> The criterium for gauging (a) seems to be whether "improved data" actually
> helps "improve processing" (b) - what else?
> Creating abuse-c entries of better/good quality obviously depends on the
> recipient being appropriate and informed about expected potential messages
> and preparing to deal with them.
> Forcing creation of abuse-c in any other way is not going to create
> better quality but actually looses information (you loose track of
> which entries have the "quality of informed and [potentially]
> prepared recipient").
>
> We have to assume that Internet number resource holders requested
> to establish abuse-c
> - usually are NOT focussed an abuse handling (different core business:-)
> - in many cases are not members of the anti-abuse working
>  (and unlikely to have insight into undocumented potential consensus views
>  of the working group or the larger abuse-c activist community)
> - in general willing to cooperate
>  (we really should care for those and help them!
>  ... yes, there are others - from "don't care" to "evil")
>
> For making a reasoned decision about the recipient for abuse-c and preparing
> for handling messages one obviously needs some understanding/explanation
> of what is expected.
> If no such helpful information is offered at the time of requesting abuse-c
> setup, many well intentioned parties will *something* (not really good
> "quality") to fill required fields and little motivation to followup
> will remain.
> If they care to ask for helpful information and the answer stays "this is
> required by policy, and it consciously declines to explain", they are likely
> to conclude that they have to submit to RIPE policies and the policy
> makers+process that cannot be taken serious...
>
> I note that for goal (b) of course some common understanding of expected use
> and handling for the abuse-c mailbox is a prerequisite on BOTH sides
> (senders also!)
>
> I do not expect to see formal, precise, and exhaustive definition of
> requirements and intended/expected use of abuse-c use - that would seem
> fairly impossible and certainly would not provide a practical answer
> to the issue.
> The working group needs to followup it previous abuse-c policy
> by starting to create practically useful explanations, before considering
> more "enforcement" (actually IMHO all enforcement activety should
> [have] be[en] postponed - potentially replaced by friendly invitations).
> It may take considerable effort to develope consensus on such
> documentation - but is it reasonable to rely on all relevant outside parties
> to have the first contact figure out completely on his own and explain
> to his management, consultants, service providers, etc... what needs to be
> done? (what aggregated cost and what "quality" implications do you expect?)
>
> It's ok to have working groups that just have internal fun between some
> birds of a feather. If a working group feels like making demands
> (e.g. policies) to a larger community it should also consider what
> support it needs to provide to serve the purposes of that larger community.
>
> Thanks for your attention and consideration.
>  Ruediger Volk
>
>
> P.S.: Sorry, for a painfully long message.
> Trust me I had more painful time writing - and making it shorter
> would have been worse - with termination not secure:-)
>
> I hope that the painful length does not obscure
> - valid concern
> - constructive suggestions
>