Unique NIC handles (was: Merging RRP and Whois)

[Urs Eppenberger <urs.eppenberger@switch.ch>]

I changed the subject, because the content of this thread of the discussion
does not match anymore. Although I hate copied text from old messages, this
time it makes it easier, so here we go
>> Now, having lambasted the idea of lumping whois into provreg, I've a
>> goofy idea.  Can PROVREG recommend a scalable solution to the
>> consideration of NIC-HANDLES? To my knowledge, this has never been
>> addressed properly, at  least since the days when the IR was split. When
>> we did the RA project, the thought was to tag the NIC-HANDLE with the
>> registrars "stamp", e.g.
>> 
>> 	WM110-NSI
>> 	WM110-RIPE
>> 	WM110-ARIN
>> 
>> but this leads, as friend Bush commented at the RIPE-37 mtg, to
>> inconsistancies between registration agents. IN a nutshell, do we need
>> globally unique IDs  to the registering agents?  If so, who administers
>> that ID space?
> 
> Why would we want global NIC handles?  Transfers?  Data-consistency?
> Making  life easier for the registrant?
> 
> None of these seem sufficiently important to merit the kind of effort
> (either bureacratic -- if its one big NIC Handle registry; or technical --
> if the registries used a shared/synced NIC Handle DB).  Especially because
> registries may not want to share their NIC handles for various privacy or
> reasons.
It would make life easier for many parties involved, not only for the
registrant. Using the e-mail address as NIC handle is a simple and
effective idea, because three big problems are solved: scalability,
distributed management and the reachability of the owner.

The idea looks good, but we need to forget about it, stomp on it so it
never ever raises its head again. Here is why:

Different registries need different attributes for a person. Some need a
name and an e-mail address, others a name and a postal address, others a
name and a credit card number. Registering a NIC handles means storing and
maintaining the supperset of all possible attributes that registries
require. I would never ever agree to this. But most importantly it is plain
impossible under current data protection laws of various countries.

Urs.