Florian Weimer wrote:
* Tobias Knecht:
4.1 Institute a mandatory reference to an IRT object in inetnum, inet6num and aut-num objects.
So it seems to me that one particular problem is that the abuse-mailbox data is not available in the bulk database dumps, and neither are the IRT objects.
Wouldn't it be easier if RIPE created person/role object dumps, containing only the nic-hdl and the abuse-mailbox field? IRT object dumps would make a lot of sense, too.
Historically, IRT objects had significant organizational overhead and have been subject to politics, so I'm not sure if they are the proper answer.
Dear Florian Weimer Bulk access is always problematic where personal data is involved. You are correct that we do not provide dump files for PERSON and ROLE objects or for MNTNER objects which also have the possibility for "abuse-mailbox:" attributes. Within the next week or so we will be putting a new release of the software into production that creates these dump files. In this we have had to extend the restriction of bulk data access by removing NIC Handle references. This is because NIC Handles are regarded as personal data in Dutch law. So we would not be able to create a file as you suggested. But we will provide the dump file for IRT objects. It should also be remembered that IRT objects were introduced for a specific purpose that required additional administrative overhead. That purpose is still valid today and some of that overhead still applies to these objects. But it is not all bad news. We have an Abuse Finder Tool. This is still in a pre-production phase and is described on RIPE Labs: http://labs.ripe.net/content/updated-heuristics-abuse-finder-service This service will find "abuse-mailbox:" attributes and related IRT objects and "remarks:" attributes that 'look like' they contain a reference to an abuse handler for any specified Internet resource. This service currently works for RIPE and APNIC resources. To a limited extent it also works with AfriNIC's data, but they don't use IRT objects or "abuse-mailbox:" so it can only look for "remarks:". This service does not return any personal data other than abuse contacts. Therefore it is not subject to any access control limits. The tool provides 'on demand' access to abuse contacts as many times as you wish. This reduces, or in many cases eliminates, the need for access to bulk data. Regards Denis Walker Business Analyst RIPE NCC Database Group