Gert Doering wrote:
I think one of the focal points here is the question on whether 'giving a hosted web server an IP address' is 'assigning address space to end users'.
Yep, I agree. I usually don't come across those cases in my line of work either, but in the cases I read about in the last couple of weeks it were usually hosting providers with physically independent hosting locations that needed addresses to assign to their customers (who, maybe for redundancy reasons, want two servers with a small subnet in two locations). This case isn't covered by the current PI policy and so the problems began. Your idea:
People have argued to remove the PA/PI distinction. I don't think that this is the right way (due to the fact that PA allocations necessarily need to be more liberal than PI assignments), but maybe we need to loosen up PI rules a bit, as in:
"Using addresses from a PI block to number other parties' devices is permitted as long as these devices are connected to the same network, documentation about the usage can be presented to the RIPE NCC, and full responsibility for the addresses (abuse handling etc) is done by the PI holder".
seems very reasonably to me (modulo some inaccuracies due to human language), I think this is the way to go forward regarding this problem. Marcus -- man-da.de GmbH, AS8365 Phone: +49 6151 16-6956 Petersenstr. 30 Fax: +49 6151 16-3050 D-64287 Darmstadt e-mail: ms@man-da.de Geschäftsführer Marcus Stögbauer AG Darmstadt, HRB 94 84