Ownerless PI Revokation, was Re: [address-policy-wg] Revised 2007-01...

> If this space is reclaimed on the simplistic basis of "it 
> wasn't in the public routing table yesterday (or ever)" then 
> reassigned, suddenly the original assignee finds their 
> private and confidetial traffic might start leaking out one 
> of their public connections. Great.

May I remind everyone involved in writing RIPE policies, that RFC 2050,
which was co-authored by Daniel Karrenburg of RIPE, describes the
IP address Assignment Framework in section 3. In paragraph 3 a),
it says:

    the organization has no intention of connecting to
    the Internet-either now or in the future-but it still
    requires a globally unique IP address.  The organization
    should consider using reserved addresses from RFC1918.
    If it is determined this is not possible, they can be
    issued unique (if not Internet routable) IP addresses.

This has been a fundamental characteristic of IP addresses since
day 1. In the early RFCs, the term Internet was used to refer to
all internetworks using the Internet Protocol(IP) because most
people assumed universal interconnectivity. But now we know better
and the term Internet only refers to the public Internet, not to
the various private IP internetworks that exist. Most of the large
international IP network providers, offer both Internet access
and IP VPN services. Some of those IP VPNs are actually internetworks
between many independent companies or organizations as described by
Peter Galbavy. 

The organizations who connect to private internets continue to apply
for PI address space (and also PA address space) at RIPE and other
RIRs. IP addresses are *NOT* reserved for the exclusive used of the
public Internet, but are available for use of any internetwork which
uses the Internet Protocol (IP). 

And if you talk to routing researchers you will learn that the global
routing table is a bit of a myth since it is not guaranteed that you
will see 100% of publicly announced addresses at any given point in
the public Internet.

--Michael Dillon