[anti-abuse-wg] Some Facts for the Record

 >'The IANA maintains a high-level registry of IP addresses.', which is 
the >> kind of << data that IANA is responsible for.
 >No more, no less. I'm not implying that IANA is only responsible for 
IPv4 :-) Sander

Are you saying that IANA is not responsible for the whois data, just for 
high level data of IP address allocation?
It seems to me that that is the way it is being done but it also seems 
to me that the controlling document
(the contract between IANA and Us Government) does not say that.  It 
says the addresses are allocated through
downstream providers (the RIRs) but that IANA is still responsible for 
the data integrity.  As I understand it the RIR's
are subcontractors and IANA is supposed to make sure the subcontractors 
handle the registration data properly.

There is supposed to be a document that IANA produces which are the 
requirements for the RIR's.  I have asked for
this document but IANA won't give it to me.  I suspect this document has 
the whois requirements for RIRs
but since they won't give it to me I can only speculate and I have to go 
by what is says in the IANA contract .  It says
that the USA owns the data and IANA is responsible for "authentication, 
integrity, and reliability of the data in
performing the IANA requirements, including the data relevant to DNS, 
root zone file, and IP address
allocation."  The whois data is "data relevant to ... IP address 
allocation."  So, according to this, IANA is not supposed
to allocate IP addresses to any RIR unless IANA can ensure the 
"authentication, integrity, and reliability of the data."

Thank You