IP whois is not perfect but it is not a problem and all information is available even if sometimes more research is needed. In addition ARIN, APNIC and RIPE are all preparing new updates of whois service which are all in beta testing now. You'lre also welcome to check Completewhois.com and you'll get full idea of whois ip hearchical system (come in one month and you'll be even more impressed, interface update is coming soon...). And protocol does exist - rwhois is designed to provide hierchical whois system with redirects from one server to the next and it even used to work directly from root rwhois for both ip and dns. Unfortunetly root rwhois server is not really maintained any more.... But I seriously don't think, IP whois protocols are a problem - its ISPs that do not report information on their customers through already existing system (swip, rwhois, etc) that are creating problems. On Wed, 14 Aug 2002, Franck Martin wrote: > The problem is that the Whois system for IP numbers is not organised > hierarchically (like DNS). > > So you have to use tricks to go down the list of delegations to find the > final one... > > There ough to be an RFC? > > Franck Martin > Network and Database Development Officer > SOPAC South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission > Fiji > E-mail: franck@sopac.org <mailto:franck@sopac.org> > Web site: http://www.sopac.org/ > <http://www.sopac.org/> Support FMaps: http://fmaps.sourceforge.net/ > <http://fmaps.sourceforge.net/> > Certificate: https://www.sopac.org/ssl/ > > This e-mail is intended for its addresses only. Do not forward this e-mail > without approval. The views expressed in this e-mail may not be necessarily > the views of SOPAC. > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Markku Savela [mailto:msa@burp.tkv.asdf.org] > Sent: Wednesday, 14 August 2002 9:19 > To: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu > Cc: ietf@ietf.org > Subject: Re: Why spam is a problem. > > > > From: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu > > > The problem is that ARIN is sending a bill to the owner of a /8 that it > > has to forward to the owner of the delegated /15 who sold bandwidth to > > a /24 - and the activity isn't violating the AUP of the /8 (remember, > > they only sell connectivity - and you do NOT want to get into > content-based > > stuff - there's a reason why 17 USC 512 gives a safe-harbor to ISPs > regarding > > their users). >