Dear Colleagues, As part of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process, a proposal has been made that could dramatically affect the way Internet number resources are distributed and managed. On 21 October 2004, the Director of ITU-TSB published a memorandum, "ITU and Internet Governance" for public comment. This memorandum includes a proposal to create a new IPv6 address space distribution process, based solely on national authorities. This could have a serious impact on RIPE NCC Members, Internet operators and the global Internet community at large. The Number Resource Organization (NRO), on behalf of the Regional Internet Registries, has prepared a public response to the ITU memorandum detailing the flaws of the proposal and the negative impact it would have on Internet operations. A summary of this response is available at: http://www.nro.net/documents/nro18.html The full response is available at: http://www.nro.net/documents/nro17.html The original ITU memorandum is available at: http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/tsb-director/itut-wsis/files/zhao-netgov01.doc We urge our members and others in the Internet community to make their views about this issue known. Without your support being *visible* and *explicit* the bottom-up, consensus based model on which the success of the Internet has been founded may be replaced by the top-down bureaucracy of "Internet Governance". To show your support: - RIPE NCC Members: Log in to the LIR Portal and tick the support box. If you do not have an LIR Portal account, please email your expression of support to: contact@ripe.net - Non-members: Please email to: im-support@ripe.net. An email archive of expressions of support will be available at: http://www.ripe.net/maillists/ncc-archives/im-support/ - ITU-TSB Members: Please also contact your ITU member state representative to voice your concerns you might have. Internet number resource distribution is fair and accessible to all. Its policy development process is open and transparent. It works. Let us keep it that way. Regards, Axel Pawlik Managing Director RIPE NCC