----- Original Message -----
From: "John Curran" <jcurran@arin.net>
On Mar 26, 2013, at 10:51 AM, Jay Ashworth <jra@baylink.com> wrote:
The problem here is, of course, one of externalities and the Common Good, hard sales to make in a business environment.
"Common Good" situations are readily dealt with, but generally not on a voluntary basis. You establish how the resource is to be managed, and then you put in place mechanisms to deal with enforcement. The problem is that en-force-ment contains "force", which is something that we really don't want anyone (or set of anyones) using except "governments" (which in our social constructs are the only ones supposed to be telling one party under penalty of force not to do something otherwise in its best interest.)
Basically, though there are lots of other things that are close.
The problem, of course, with asking governments for help is that the output often does not resemble anything related to the original problem statement and can make the situation worse...
Yup, a problem which is indeed perennial, and which we mentioned in an earlier set of exchanges.
If we had truly global operational best practices for the Internet (ones that went through a fairly well-defined policy development process which included multiple operator forums from around the globe) then you might have a solid chance of producing output which avoided the various anti- competitive aspects, and yet were a reasonable basis for governments to then step up and indicate should be required for ISPs in their operations. It wouldn't take very many governments asking "How do I reduce SPAM and DDoS attacks?" and hearing back "Please require ISPs to adhere to this Best Common Operating Practice Foo-01" before it became common practice.
Indeed, but I have an even better example of how that's already done, that is probably pertinent. The National Electric Code is assimilated law now, I think, in every state in the US. It is promulgated by the National Fire Protection Association, which is a standards organization originally started by insurors to reduce their exposure and expenses; by professional consensus, they have become, effectively, a lawmaking body. So they're not the government, they're subject-matter experts, technically competent to have opinions, and their opinions are assimilated into controlling law. Is BCP38 *not* well enough though out even for large and medium sized carriers to adopt as contractual language, much less for FCC or someone to impose upon them? If so, we should work on it further. If not, do carriers need to be threatened with its imposition to get them to adopt it contractually? Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth Baylink jra@baylink.com Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates http://baylink.pitas.com 2000 Land Rover DII St Petersburg FL USA #natog +1 727 647 1274