Update - RIPE Database Proxy Service Issues

Fri Jan 4 11:50:13 UTC 2013

[Apologies for duplicate emails]

Dear colleagues,

Thank you for your comments on this issue.

I would like to point out that the *DRAFT* Activity Plan and Budget is 
published around September of each year, allowing members ample time to 
read it before it is discussed at the Autumn General Meeting. The RIPE 
NCC Executive Board then takes the outcome of the discussions and any 
new developments into consideration before finalising and approving the 
definitive Activity Plan and Budget, which is then published before the 
end of the year. On 13 December 2012, we informed the membership of the 
definitive Activity Plan and Budget and listed the changes from the 
draft plan. Please note that the membership does not vote on either the 
draft or the final Activity Plan and Budget - this is one of the 
member-elected Executive Board's functions.

One of the modifications that took place from the draft to the final 
Activity Plan was the addition of the RIPE Database Proxy Service as a 
member-only service. This was a follow-up on an action point that 
stemmed from the Data Protection Task Force and a need to strengthen our 
contractual relationship between the current users of the RIPE Database 
Proxy Service and the RIPE NCC ensuring compliance with Dutch and EU 
legislation.

Partially based on the membership's vote of approval regarding the new 
Charging Scheme of "one LIR, one fee" and partially based on the fact 
that the RIPE Database Proxy Service is only actively used by less than 
a handful of entities (both members and non-members), the Executive 
Board made the decision, which they felt was in the members' interest, 
to ask the users of this service to sign both a specific RIPE Database 
Proxy Service Agreement and the Standard Service Agreement (Membership 
Agreement) that adheres to both EU and Dutch legislation, which would 
entail the users of this service paying the annual membership fee.

Based on the recent mailing list discussions it seems apparent that this 
is a contentious issue that requires further membership and community 
discussion. Therefore, we will keep the RIPE Database Proxy Service 
running as it was in 2012 (i.e., no fee and no Membership Agreement) 
until we have completed these discussions.

We will prepare a legal analysis of the options at hand for the 
contractual documentation required to use this service and gauge whether 
or not the membership feels that we should charge a fee for this service.

Regards,

Axel Pawlik
Managing Director
RIPE NCC