Sky blocks Newzbin, important legal and technical questions need answering

[Roland Perry]

In article <007001ccbbf1$b4fa8090$1eef81b0$@net>, James Firth 
<james2 at jfirth.net> writes
>> It would be helpful if part of the court order process put an 
>>obligation  upon the ISPs doing the blocking to periodically inspect 
>>the [Regional]  IP registry entries of the number ranges in question 
>>to determine if  they have been de-allocated from the original holder, 
>>which is an  inevitable consequence of any transfer.
>
>Agreed, but Arnold, J said exactly the opposite:
>
>http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2011/2714.html#para12
>
>" In saying this, I do not mean that BT will be obliged to check IP
>addresses or URLs notified by the Studios. It will be the Studios'
>responsibility accurately to identify IP addresses and URLs to be notified
>to BT."
>
>(Note nothing about removal)

But that's in the context of adding new IP addresses if the target 
shifts.

>> There isn't such a shortage of IP addresses that a few thousand (or 
>>even  tens of thousand) put into quarantine makes much difference.
>
>But there is still the business of identifying them of being in quarantine
>in the first place, and maintaining this list (adding/removing).  9
>reasonably-sized ISPs in the UK, plus potentially other countries.

There's no umbrella list required, all it needs is for hosting ISPs to 
refrain from reallocating a small address range to a new customer when 
they know very well that their original customer got blocked. If they 
ever sell/transfer the block containing that address range (which seems 
unlikely at the moment, I suspect it's un-used ranges which are being 
traded), then the fact it contains such a blocked IP should be part of 
the due diligence.

The ISP could make this simpler by adding a note to the registration in 
the public database for such blocked IP ranges.

>Systems for managing spam blacklists have evolved over the last 20(?) years.
>This is new and is driven by a different set of motives.

ISPs are full of clever people. They'll cope.
-- 
Roland Perry