"David R. Conrad" <davidc@apnic.net> writes: APNIC has a policy that _all_ "permanent" reassignments made by ISPs must be recorded in the APNIC database before address space is considered used. This policy is recursive; it includes address space assigned to customers of ISP customers of ISPs (etc), even to the point of individual /32s assigned in the case of static dialups or virtual hosting.
I believe RIPE-NCC has a similar policy (although their hierarchy is much shallower that the AP region's for reasons I've never been to clear on).
For the record: The RIPE NCC does have the same policy. Looking at the relative depths of the registration hierarchy and possible explanations is an interesting idea. I also fully agree that a single whois interface to all address space registrations is very desirable. The RIPE NCC and ARIN provide that using the -a flag on their servers. This is easy for us because we happen to use almost identical database schemata. The InterNIC and now ARIN face the problem of a different schema. Exchange between the databases has been on the agenda for at least 5 years. If it was easy it would have been done now. If you want the priority raised, talk to *your* regional registry. Daniel