[address-policy-wg] Re: RIPE Access Policy Change Request to allow allocations to critical infrastructure

>I don't claim that ARIN or ICANN or DENIC are not special, or are not
>important for the functioning of the Internet as a whole.

ICANN isn't special. They don't offer any infrastructure services.

However, ARIN and RIPE maintain resgistry databases which are
published in the form of a whois directory. This is part of the
Internet infrastructure. DENIC hosts the .de top level domain
and provides an authoritative DNS service. That is also part
of the infrastructure.

If an organization wants special treatment, first they have
to show us that they operate a service that is a part of the
Internet infrastructure. Then they have to show that this service
is special enough to be called "critical".

You are right that everyone forwards packets and that is not
special enough. But what if someone operates a SIP network to
carry VoIP calls for 112 (999) calls? Maybe that would make a
part of their network into critical infrastructure. When making
policy it is best to think ahead into the future a bit and make
sure that they new policy will work for a few years, at least.

--Michael Dillon