In message <CAKvLzuH7dhj6ti_RW_hqo61BOsXT_7iiihkVs9D_O0M-uPb9uQ@mail.gmail.com> denis walker <ripedenis@gmail.com> wrote:
Why don't you use the RIPE GRS service?
Although I have already listed most of the numerous reasons why I don't use this service in my prior posting, I suppose that for the sake of completeness I should also point out the following, which is an absolute and irrefutable deal-breaker. I don't just build tools for the sake of building tools. I like coding, but I have plenty else to do. I build tools to achieve a goal. I work on network abuse issues. I have done so for about 20 years and I continue to do so. If I become aware of a situation, like the one I have become aware of recently, wherein two different networks in the APNIC region and one in the RIPE region have apparently taken up the rather deplorable habit of hosting phishing web sites, I like to contact the administrators of such networks and ask them why they are doing this and if they plan to continue to do so. When I say "contact" in this context, I generally mean either via email or phone. The specific tool that I have been talking about here recently allows me to get the full *unredacted* WHOIS record for any given IP block, anywhere on the planet. Emphasis on "unredacted". It is of very nearly -zero- use to me to get the name of a company to which a given IP address block is registered if I do not also get a contact email address and/or phone number for the company in question. A brief quote relating to the RIPE GRS Service: https://labs.ripe.net/author/denis/the-ripe-global-resource-service/ "When we display any data we can obfuscate the data depending on the requirements of the data set owner and the European Data Protection directives. The data can be queried by any of the RIPE Database query methods: The Web Query form The RESTful API Command line queries. ..." The bottom line is that GRS does not provide the information that either I or anyone else who is combatting network abuse actually needs. Instead, the advice is given that in order to get this key information, the user should resort to good old fashion port 43 queries, which is *exactly* what my tool does. (So maybe I'm not such a big dummy after all.) I shall not debate the merits, or the lack thereof, of this european invention called "GDPR". I understand its noble intent and motivation. That having been said, it is distinctly *not* helpful to anyone who is ernestly and proactively seeking to make the global Internet a better and safer place for all, and not just by way of protecting end users from evil American giant corporations and their voracious and generally sinister appetites for unlimited quantities of data relating to natural persons. That is quite certainly not the only threat that end users face when they venture onto the Internet. I would however be more than happy to debate the now nearly universal and atrociously misguided attempts by some to hobble otherwise useful sources of contact information for entities that are quite evidentally *not* natural persons, and the unambiguously negative effects this has on the security and stability of the Internet globally, not to mention its clearly destructive and deleterious effects upon the safety of billions of ordinary Intetnet end users worldwide. (Not that I would expect anyone on a mailing list like this to give a rat's ass about any of those poor ordinary end users or their routine and day-to-day victimizations at the hands of professional cybercriminals.) Regards, rfg