In message <9D519571-6D19-4C70-81EE-928D5D804C01@rfc1035.com>, at 11:25:34 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014, Jim Reid <jim@rfc1035.com> writes
What does the enquirer do when the holding entity mentioned (eg on IANA's list of /8's no longer exists (Like the UK's Department of Social Security).
Well, we both know that for this specific case Roland the holding entity does still exist. It just has a different name.
Not really. The entity has been "reorganised", the address allocation used elsewhere within government via various departments concerned with "delivery" of government services. It's actually quite messy.
To answer in more general terms for these sorts of questions, IANA could say "We issued FOO/8 to BAR on DATE and here's the contact info we got at the time.
So far so good.
We understand that FUBAR is the current address holder and contact for FOO/8.
This is the crux - how does IANA come to the understanding?
For FOO/16 or FOO/24, that's legacy space which is now overseen by the RIRs and $RIR for the address block in question."
Again, this thread isn't about resources smaller than /8.
BTW, I'm still struggling to understand why real engineers would need to care about the name of the organisation that holds some address space. If Bad Things are happening with 51/8 (say) I doubt it matters if the address holder is called the Department of (Health and) Social Security or the Department for Work and Pensions.
But it does matter if (one or more of): The building whose address is mentioned has closed, the phone numbers and emails don't work any more, the named person has retired, the addresses appear to be used by completely different bits of the government as well. -- Roland Perry