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

Hi,

> >'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?

Yes

> 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.

That is between IANA (well, ICANN since IANA is a function of ICANN) and the US Government… If ICANN promised responsibility for something they have no control over, then that is a problem for them. But I leave that to someone from ICANN because I am not involved with either ICANN or the US Government, so I can't speak for them or make statements about contracts they might have signed.

> 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.

No, that is not how it works.

> 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 don't know which document you are talking about, unless you are talking about RFC 2050. It contains guidelines and is a 'representation of the current practice of the IP address registries with respect to address assignment' in 1996.

> 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 .  

'Suspect' and 'speculate'. Not very good grounds to build an argument on… Look at section 2.2 of RFC 2050. I think that comes close to what you are talking about.

> 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."

Of course: 'in performing the IANA requirements'. IP address allocation from IANA to the RIRs. That is the IANA requirement.

> 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."

No, that is not what it says…
Sander