Dear SIG members

The proposal 'Change in the criteria for the recognition of NIRs in the APNIC region' has been sent to the Policy SIG for review. It will be presented at the Policy SIG at APNIC 26 in Christchurch, New Zealand, 25-29 August 2008.

The proposal's history can be found at:

http://www.apnic.net/policy/proposals/prop-060-v001.html

We invite you to review and comment on the proposal on the mailing list before the meeting.

The comment period on the mailing list before an APNIC meeting is an important part of the policy development process. We encourage you to express your views on the proposal:

- Do you support or oppose this proposal?

- Does this proposal solve a problem you are experiencing? If so, tell the community about your situation.

- Do you see any disadvantages in this proposal?

- Is there anything in the proposal that is not clear?

- What changes could be made to this proposal to make it more effective?

randy and jian

________________________________________________________________________

prop-060-v001: Change in the criteria for the recognition of NIRs in the APNIC region ________________________________________________________________________

Author: Kusumba Sridhar kusumba@vebtel.com

Version: 1

Date: 16 May 2008

1. Introduction ----------------

This is a proposal to update the criteria for recognising new National Internet Registries (NIRs) in the APNIC region.

The current criteria are described in the following policy document:

APNIC-104: Criteria for the recognition of NIRs in the APNIC region http://www.apnic.net/policy/nir-criteria.html

2. Summary of current problem ------------------------------

The existing Policy frame work was last published on 1st December 2002 and the same was not re-visited since then. There has been significant change in the Political, Economic and Operational situations in various economies, especially the growing economies. The very structure of Internet and its Resources has changed in several economies. The industry participation has also grown significantly leading Internet to be as ubiquitous as any other resource like Electricity, Water, Shelter etc., In such a situation, it is important that the very industry decides the future and applicability of the Internet resources and also controls them through a community friendly environment. The Government, while taking a neutral position, is required to support such resources but must refrain from controlling the same.

The current NIR recognizing criteria requires any Industry representation to have endorsement of the proposal from the Government agency (Section 3.1) that is responsible for Internet related activities including issuing licenses to ISPs etc in a respective country. APNIC considers any application without such endorsement as "in-complete" proposal and will not forward to the Executive Council for processing or approving a NIR.

However, in a situation where such proposal is originated by a unit or division or department of the Government, such proposal could go through since the Government endorsement is easily or sometimes automatically available to them. This is also applicable for National Information Centers, Internet Exchanges etc., that are largely and many times fully controlled and manned by the Government.

It is not automatic agreement that a NIC in any country could be the "first-choice" to form NIR by the Policy. However, in a situation where it is important for the "Internet" itself to move towards a free-regulatory World, unfortunately in the several growing economies it is noticed that Internet is still largely manned by the Government. The readers may kindly appreciate the difference between "controlling" and "manning". Due to several Security, Economic and Political reasons, it may be required that Internet is controlled in such economies.

Due to this, Government has taken control of Infrastructure networks such as NIC, IXPs etc., with participation of Industry up to an extent that it is a meager contributing-participation and not decisive- participation in certain economies.

1. Government represented agencies will be having control on Internet Resource allocation in the economy, if such NIR is formed by Government controlled agency.

2. Policy only indicates but may not restrict Government to enforce rules to obtain resources from NIR and not APNIC directly.

3. Government under the ambit of National Security may demonstrate the need for the Service Providers to only obtain resources from regional NIR and not from APNIC despite the policy indication.

4. Member or User community may loose opportunity to grow the networks largely due to very reason that they may need to obtain Internet resources only from such NIR and the regulator who is also directly associated with such NIRs or Policy makers, may dismiss or delay such allocation requests against any pending issue or matter concerned to that Service provider and the government or Regulator.

5. Requirement of Government's endorsement may put the proposing Industry Board to off-load majority of Permanent Board Positions to the Government representatives or agencies again leading to only contributing-participation and not decisive-participation due to the political situation that the endorsing Government may seek major stake on the Board representation for the positions that are Permanent and not Elected.

6. Despite NIR proposal being sent through a Government controlled agency, the EC may have right to reject such proposal if it has noticed suitable objections from members. However, in the current policy criteria, the scope of such objections is only "external" and not within the policy framework or work flow.

3. Situation in other RIRs ----------------------------

ARIN, RIPE and AfriNIC do not have NIRs. LACNIC has NIRs but does not have a policy document for the recognition of new NIRs.

4. Details of the proposal ----------------------------

Proposed changes in the policy:

1. NIR application from Industry represented agency may not need Government's endorsement. However, must qualify Point no. 3 below.

2. NIR application from Government represented agency may not need Government's endorsement. However, must qualify Point no. 3 below.

3.1 Any NIR application must be put on voting process, both through Online Voting and Voting at AMM and must achieve support.

OR

3.2 Any NIR application must be put on voting process, both through Online Voting and Voting at AMM and must achieve atleast 75% support from the members within that Economy. In such a case, voting is open only for members from that Economy.

4. Any Economy can apply for NIR only when there are minimum of certain predefined members under each category since that will also justify the efficient application of IP resources.

5. Section 3.2.2 must mention that the Board composition of the NIR must have majority representation from Members, followed by Academic or Research Organizations etc., The Government or its participating agencies must have minor role compared to other representations on the Board of NIR.

6. The Board may restrict its positions to not more than Nine members since it is difficult to achieve co-ordination of the same for effective functioning or obtaining decisions for such NIR.

7. Having either APNIC's Operational office or Branch Office should not restrict that Economy in applying for NIR.

5. Advantages and disadvantages of the proposal -------------------------------------------------

There are several advantages of adopting such policy:

1. Neutrality which is inline to "Open Policy" levels while considering a NIR proposal.

2. Mandates Global Policies for creating Free Access to Internet Resources.

3. Improves participation by membership community in Internet Development.

4. Removes the Conditional Policy barriers in several countries where the Governments cannot impose such conditional terms for obtaining resources.

There are no disadvantages by adopting the policy.

6. Effect on APNIC --------------------

APNIC members would be benefited by such policy since they don't have to fear for undergoing conditional allocations of resources. At the same time, membership communities in several countries, if eligible by this policy, will be able to form NIR that is community controlled rather than any incumbent or Government controlled NIR.

7. Effect on NIRs -------------------

There is no effect on NIRs.