Re: [anti-spam-wg@localhost] Contacts

[Nick Hilliard <]

> Your assumption was completely correct at the dawn of the Internet
> when collegiality, small numbers, and motivation by peer approval
> reigned.   These are all "gone with the wind".   The Internet is
> now dominated by financial greed and so its participants, especially
> its miscreants, have to be dealt with in the way society handles
> this viz sanctions.   These sanctions won't bite on the well-behaved,
> so what is the specific problem you foresee?  

As your ideas have repercussions far beyond your apparent understanding
of RIPE's purpose, structure and political nature, you should take your
concerns to lir-wg, where I am sure they will receive the attention they
deserve.

> Well it may be better for you, and it may be better for the RIR staffs
> waiting around to collect their pensions, but it is not better for us
> spam victims.    Please try to think of it that way.  

And all the Internet's problems are not spam.  Please try to think of it
that way.

Yes, we all find spam annoying, and those of us working in ISP's find it
a serious problem, but there are better ways to deal with the problem
than spending vast resources to create bureaucratic structures to ensure
that public databases are kept 100% up-to-date.  These include
legislation prohibiting the scourge (Europe is well ahead of much of the
rest of the world in this respect), blacklists, public education and a
whole lot more.

You want to stop spam?  Then lobby the US congress to take Europe's lead
and the amount of spam being stuffed down our throats will probably drop
by 95% overnight.  This is where our attentions should be focused, not
on debating the merits of forcing indolent LIR's to run their businesses
properly, or mis-representing RIR's as "spam enablers".

Incidentally, your disparaging comments about RIR staff are unmerited
and quite unprofessional.

Nick