It's very clear. I went back and forth with support, asking how to automate my bulk transfer with the new system. Me: Is the bulk data download going to be available for automated download. I can currently download the data daily from the ftp via a script. The new web page doesn't seem to support that. Support: No, there is no automation by design. I'm ok with whatever system they provide if the functionality stays the same. I don't understand what they gain by making a human login and download the file. On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 5:26 PM, Michael Dillon <wavetossed@googlemail.com> wrote:
Apparently we're supposed to be going all Web 2.0 now.
Web 2.0 can handle bulk transfers of data just fine.
I wonder if this is somehow related to privacy and data protection laws.
Just recently, RIPE announced that they were going to block bulk transfers as a result of data protection laws, presumably because some law has just changed. Obviously ARIN is under a different legal regime than RIPE, however data protection has recently been a hot button issue in the USA and it is possible that something similar will happen. Given the importance of case law in the USA, as opposed to legislation, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of legal review going on.
But again, as far as technology goes, HTTP is a superior file transfer protocol to FTP, so the move to Web 2.0 RESTful transactions over HTTP does not give any technical reason to stop bulk transfers. In fact, it may just be an oversight so you should really ask them Clearly, if nobody bothers to ask about bulk transfers, then nobody uses them and nobody cares, so shutting them down is the right thing to do.
--Michael Dillon