Re: [nznog] Rescue from alligators in the swamp - note from APNIC

John Tran wrote:

5) Next steps ------------- Under the database privacy policy, all non-portable assignments and non-portable sub-allocations that have not been specifically marked as public have now been made private. However, because some allocations and assignments within certain ranges appear to have been considered 'portable' by default from earlier practices in New Zealand, APNIC will restore the affected ranges from private to public. The ranges in question are: - 202.27.0./16 - 202.36.0.0/16 - 202.37.0.0/16 - 202.49.0.0/16, and - 202.50.0.0/16

Anyone holding addresses from these ranges that they wish to be made private, should contact APNIC helpdesk. The update will be done this week.

I'd encourage anyone who has a stake in a particular address block to contact APNIC and make real efforts to get their details sorted out - they should at least attempt to get their contact details up to date. Just because details reappear in the database the problem has not been resolved. Many people who believe they 'own' particular blocks of address space will not even be aware of this debate. I think the onus falls on the ISPs who are routing these blocks to contact their customers and help make them aware that they need to sort this out now. I was involved in the discussions in Auckland back in 98 when we came up with a pragmatic solution and it all got pushed back down the stack at that time as people were busy - let's not repeat that! From discussions I've had off line I believe there's good will around to sort this out once and for all. Let's not blow the opportunity.

6) NZTelecom custodianship -------------------------- In regard to the wider issue of NZTelecom as a custodian of the ranges listed above, APNIC operated in good faith, trying to promote aggregation and provide a clearer framework for the custodianship of address space in New Zealand.

That said, clearly there are now major concerns being expressed on this mailing list concerning portability of blocks within these ranges. The APNIC Secretariat will examine the records within these ranges and will work with NZTelecom, affected parties, and the community to find an appropriate solution. The solution will not happen overnight but the process is beginning immediately. Of course, APNIC will keep the New Zealand community fully up to date on the progress of the discussions.

The APNIC Secretariat would be happy to assist anyone with concerns. If you want to discuss your concerns with us, please call the helpdesk on +61-7-3858-3188 or send email to .

This looks like it can be a positive outcome for all. The key issue is that those holders of historical allocations need to take steps to sort out their entitlement to use the address space in question. The mind shift that people need to make is that they don't 'own' address space - it's allocated to them on the basis of need and there are fees involved.

7) The past and the future -------------------------- Clearly, much of this stems back to a time when the framework for allocating and assigning resources was much less defined than it is today. The RIRs, with the community, are trying to provide a responsible framework for managing resources, both historical and existing resources.

Some of you may be aware of the ERX transfer project in which resources in use in this region were previously registered in the ARIN database and are now being transferred to the APNIC database and are now managed by APNIC. More information about this project is available at:

http://www.apnic.net/db/erx/

Many other steps are being taken. One such example is the policy recently implemented to support transfers of historical address space:

http://www.apnic.net/docs/policy/proposals/prop-006-v001.html

Others recently approved by the community, but yet to be implemented are:

* Recovery of unused address space: http://www.apnic.net/docs/policy/proposals/prop-017-v001.html

* Protecting historical records in the whois database: http://www.apnic.net/docs/policy/proposals/prop-018-v001.html

I would strongly urge anyone who is a custodian of Internet resources to read these policies and to contact APNIC if they have any queries.

Finally it is worth mentioning that four APNIC staff members will be at the forthcoming NZNOG meeting, and will be happy to meet with people and to provide a forum for discussing these issues.

Clearly there are policies here that will affect members of the NZ community. I'd encourage people to get across these so that more "astonishment" can be avoided.