[anti-abuse-wg] RIPE Charter

Hi Ronald,

> Lastly, I must ask the question:  What is RIPE NCC, exactly?

This is a common question. I think this section on https://www.ripe.net/participate/ripe gives a good starting point:

> What's the difference between RIPE and the RIPE NCC?
> 
> Although similar in name, the RIPE NCC and RIPE are separate entities. The RIPE NCC provides administrative support to RIPE, such as the facilitation of RIPE Meetings and providing administrative support to RIPE Working Groups.
> 
> The RIPE NCC was established in 1992 by the RIPE community to serve as an administrative body.
> 
> The RIPE community refers collectively to any individual or organisation, whether members of the RIPE NCC or not, that has an interest in the way the Internet is managed, structured or governed.

So RIPE is the community (no formal membership required, just subscribe to a mailing list and/or show up at RIPE meetings) and RIPE NCC is the formal Association under Dutch law that is the Regional Internet Registry for this region, allocating IP addresses and ASNs, and has paying members.

From https://www.ripe.net/about-us:

> We’re the Regional Internet Registry for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia. As such, we allocate and register blocks of Internet number resources to Internet service providers (ISPs) and other organisations.
> 
> We’re a not-for-profit organisation that works to support the RIPE (Réseaux IP Européens) community and the wider Internet community. The RIPE NCC membership consists mainly of Internet service providers, telecommunication organisations and large corporations.

And then there is the link between the two: the RIPE NCC Standard Service Agreement https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-626 in section 6.1 states: "The Member acknowledges applicability of, and adheres to, the RIPE Policies and RIPE NCC procedural documents.". So the members of the RIPE NCC agree to adhere to the policies set by the RIPE community. The RIPE community has to keep this in mind when developing new policies: we can't contradict the RIPE NCC Standard Service Agreement. For example: policy can't set prices as there is a different procedure for setting those in the service agreement.

Because of the way RIPE and RIPE NCC work together and the similar naming the difference between RIPE and RIPE NCC is often "forgotten". I know many people that say "RIPE" when they mean "RIPE NCC", so you are not alone in not knowing where the boundary is :)

Cheers,
Sander

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