The Notes of Lu Heng
Who gave the Internet’s recordkeepers the power to govern it? These Notes follow that question from everyday analogies to a different design for the network.
All Notes
Follow a question, find a particular Note, or read how the argument develops.
Portability, operational continuity and the right to leave.
15 Notes found · Page 2 / 2
Who should decide when a registry has failed: its members, or the institutions above it?
The revival of ICP-2, a document drafted over 20 years ago to define the criteria for establishing Regional Internet Registries, was triggered by the AFRINIC governance crisis—and rightly so.
Why can a fake email threaten a business, and what does that say about the registry?
Recently, many RIPE NCC members received an email titled “Download Review,” demanding confirmation of information within 48 hours. The email did not come from RIPE NCC. It was a phishing attempt, exploiting fear—specifically, fear of RIPE NCC’s perceived authority.
Why must a network have the unconditional right to move its addresses to another registry?
The revision of ICP-2 presents an opportunity to fix a structural weakness in Internet governance: the lack of guaranteed portability of number resources. Portability means that a network must have the unconditional right to move its IP addresses or ASNs from one Regional Internet Registry to another. This should not be optional, conditional, or discretionary; it must be a hard requirement embedded in ICP-2. Without portability, networks are effectively locked into the RIR they first registered with and are forced to bear the consequences of that RIR’s governance failures or operational breakdowns. That dependency creates systemic risk for the Internet itself.