In any case, my "proposal" is that ICANN impose responsibility along with authority: as a simple example (restricted just to address space assignment), it could establish an AUP that RIRs would have to comply with to keep their assigned space - and then enforce it (this step is not optional, or the fix won't actually fix anything). Are you suggesting that ICANN should assume the regulatory role that currently sits with sovereign nations?
What regulatory role is that? The one that RIPE is assuming in imposing an AUP on its sub-assignees (if my memory of their claim is accurate)? The one that (almost) every ISP in the world assumes in imposing an AUP on its customers?
Sitting on their thumbs waiting for someone else to solve the problem, which is what I see them doing, is *not* a responsible thing for ICANN/IANA to do here. If this is being done because that's what the procedures in place call for, then the procedures themselves are broken and need to be fixed. Please let me know where I can get a copy of the document authorising IANA to regulate in this area.
Why do you need one? IANA has the authority to delegate address space (again, restricting the discussion to just address space for ease of language); where does it get that from? What compels it to so delegate without an AUP attached? If there is such a thing, then that thing is (part of) the problem and needs to be fixed before we can have a non-broken Internet.
A top down approach is unlikely to work without effective enforcement mechanisms.
Oh, certainly. The AUPs I'm speaking of would have to be enforced, or they won't help anything.
As you'd like to see an AUP it might be helpful to give us a general idea of what you'd like to see in it and what you'd like to see done when it is not followed. At the moment I'm not sure what you want and that makes it difficult to draft a policy proposal.
As I remarked upthread, I'm not a policy author. But there are plenty of AUPs around to look at as examples; as I also remarked upthread, I think RIPE told me they have one that they impose, de-jure at least, on their sub-assignees; that might be a reasonable place to start. Most ISPs have one; looking at a bunch of them would be a reasonable source of ideas too. Looking back to the days when there was an effective authority at the top in the form of the NSF and (earlier) DARPA and looking at the AUPs they had might give some ideas - though you'd have substantial sections to rip out. As for penalties, I don't know what would be most reasonable. Penultimately, there's deassigning of the address space in question; ultimately, revoking of all assignments and the "charter", if you will, as RIR. But those would necessarily be last-resort steps; I'm not sure what would be appropriate as intermediate sanctions. Maybe look at what ISPs do for problem customers? All your talk about bottom-up policy is, I think, missing something important. It seems to be treating the net as a democracy. Internet governance has never been democratic. Perhaps it would be better if it were, perhaps not - but it isn't; it is, and always has been, dictatorial. The dictators have been benevolent, laissez-faire, and relatively willing to listen to the populace, so it hasn't felt much like a dictatorship, but that's what it's been. And that could be where the problem is coming from: it looks to me as though you're treating the net like a dictatorship when it comes to authority, but like a democracy when it comes to responsibility. In any case, once again, why are you asking me to do your work for you? It's your *job* there, you at ICANN and the IANA, to deal with the difficult issues of Internet governance; go do your job! (What makes me think you're not? All the problems that have arisen under - and, I believe, from - your regime, and the nothing I see being done to deal with them.) Or don't, and watch the slide downhill continue. /~\ The ASCII der Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B