[cooperation-wg] publication of data about legacy resources

In message <9D519571-6D19-4C70-81EE-928D5D804C01 at rfc1035.com>, at 
11:25:34 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014, Jim Reid <jim at rfc1035.com> writes

>> What does the enquirer do when the holding entity mentioned (eg on 
>>IANA's list of /8's no longer exists (Like the UK's Department of 
>>Social Security).
>
>Well, we both know that for this specific case Roland the holding 
>entity does still exist. It just has a different name.

Not really. The entity has been "reorganised", the address allocation 
used elsewhere within government via various departments concerned with 
"delivery" of government services. It's actually quite messy.

>To answer in more general terms for these sorts of questions, IANA 
>could say "We issued FOO/8 to BAR on DATE and here's the contact info 
>we got at the time.

So far so good.

>We understand that FUBAR is the current address holder and contact for 
>FOO/8.

This is the crux - how does IANA come to the understanding?

>For FOO/16 or FOO/24, that's legacy space which is now overseen by the 
>RIRs and $RIR for the address block in question."

Again, this thread isn't about resources smaller than /8.

>BTW, I'm still struggling to understand why real engineers would need 
>to care about the name of the organisation that holds some address 
>space. If Bad Things are happening with 51/8 (say) I doubt it matters 
>if the address holder is called the Department of (Health and) Social 
>Security or the Department for Work and Pensions.

But it does matter if (one or more of): The building whose address is 
mentioned has closed, the phone numbers and emails don't work any more, 
the named person has retired, the addresses appear to be used by 
completely different bits of the government as well.
-- 
Roland Perry