On Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 2:48 PM Chris Smith via 44net 44net@mailman.ampr.org wrote:
When you corrupt the DNS as you did here, you create the potential for severe damage or loss of life. I have assigned several subnets to San Bernardino RACES and other emergency response groups who potentially rely on DNS to function and you can take those networks down in one ignorant action.
This concerns me greatly.
ARDC licence their IP address space "exclusively for the purpose of Amateur Radio communications and experimentation”. If anyone (coordinator or otherwise) chooses to allow the address space to be used for any other purpose, they cannot provide any SLA, or other assurances of any sort on behalf of ARDC.
Chris,
For what it's worth, I interpreted the original statement to mean other amateur-radio emergency response groups. Indeed, as emcomm is one of the major use cases for amateur radio, this seems entirely consistent with use of the ARDC IP space.
The ARDC address space is not designed for use in any circumstances where a person’s life is in any way reliant upon it (or any ancillary services, such as DNS) being available at any time.
It could be argued that supporting emergency communications is a major part of the amateur radio endeavor; this interpretation seems inconsistent with the "purpose of Amateur Radio communications" part of the ARDC agreement. If this is indeed the case, it may make sense to call it out explicitly, in writing, in the licensing information.
The terms of use specify: "All address(es) licensed to You remain the sole and exclusive property of ARDC. You do not obtain any rights, title, or interest in the address(es) nor in the AMPRNet.”
and also: “Licenses may be rescinded or suspended by ARDC at any time and for any reason.”
That's fair, but it's also qualitatively different than someone doing so due to a miscommunication; in that respect, this seems a bit tangential. It would be very odd indeed of ARDC revoked a block of address space used by an amateur radio emergency support organization for no reason other than that it could.
- Dan C. (KZ2X)