I would like to se the whole database viewed public, maybee a "copyleft" approach. As this is the only way to stay put of spending extra resources on non-productive work. Fully agreed. Any copyright on the database would have a highly counterproductive effect since it might well stop people from contributing info for it.

If the move to X.500 is done in the future, you must be aware that all the information will be public. You can play with access control lists (if anyone request them), but this may not be the best way to protect networked information. Sylvain ---------------- Sylvain.Langlois@der.edf.fr

Any copyright on the database would have a highly counterproductive effect since it might well stop people from contributing info for it. Within germany the database holding information on routing, network and people information is currently not copyrighted, but kept confidential only for network administrators, because just a few people voted that the X.121 addresses of their routers should be confidential. I'm not aware of the presence of X.121 addresses in the RIPE database. And if people want to keep that information secret, they just shouldn't include it in submissions for the RIPE database. If there is any need for confidential or copyrighted kind of data, try to keep it to a minimum and separate it from the other data, so that it don't suck up the whole database into confidential or copyrighted state (like in germany). The RIPE database should be considered public, therefore confidential information simply doesn't belong in it. Any local, regional, national or whatever database may contain items with confidential information, but those items can simply be filtered out when data are forwarded for inclusion in the RIPE database. Piet