The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)

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Submission to the Government of Canada Consultation on a Modern Copyright Framework for Online Intermediaries

Contact:

Mr. John Curran
ARIN, Chief Executive Officer
jcurran@arin.net

Michael R. Abejuela, Esq.
General Counsel
mabejuela@arin.net

Stephen M. Ryan, Esq.
Outside Counsel

Introduction

The American Registry of Internet Numbers (ARIN) thanks Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and Canadian Heritage for the opportunity to submit information on ARIN’s role in the policy issues related to copyright in the Consultation on a Modern Copyright Framework for Online Intermediaries.

About ARIN

Established in 1997, the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is a non-governmental, non-profit, member-based organization and one of five global Regional Internet Registries (RIRs). ARIN supports the governance of the Internet throughout our service region, comprised of Canada, the United States, and Caribbean and North Atlantic islands.

Our core functions include the management and registration of Internet Protocol (‘IP’) number resources and Autonomous System numbers (ASNs). ARIN devotes significant effort to policy development and on working with the community to improve the integrity of traffic on the Internet. Since 1997, Internet service providers (ISPs) of all sizes in Canada – ranging from large nationally known entities and corporate end users to small entrepreneurial ISPs – have successfully participated in a self-governance framework for Internet address coordination that works collegially with both the private sector and government entities.

When requested, ARIN issues the rights to utilize large blocks of IP numbers to ISPs. An ISP may then sub-allocate these numbers to their own customers as required. No government funding is provided to support ARIN’s activities.

Exploring data sources for infringements for Canadian intellectual property owners

When looking at content infringement and working on identification of the content publisher to enforce rights, it may be useful to reference the joint Internet number registry that is maintained by the Regional Internet Registries. 

ARIN maintains the definitive registry IP numbers that have been issued in our service region and makes the public portion of the information available via a variety of tools.  The most common method of access is via the Whois protocol and hence why the public portion of the registry is often referred to as ARIN’s  "Whois" IP directory.

Publicly displayed registration data in Whois directory includes:

  • the IP number resources issued by ARIN (or a predecessor registry)
  • the ISP or other organization responsible for specific IP resources along with a name and business contact details for a designated employee responsible for responding to enquiries
  • the original registration date and last updated date.

The Whois directory is freely utilized by Canadian private sector entities, law enforcement, and foreign counterintelligence. It should be noted that ARIN’s Whois directory does not require any information to be displayed on individual Canadian citizens who have been allocated an IP number(s) from their ISP, ensuring that individual privacy is protected for Canadian citizens in this respect.

ARIN registry policies have been developed jointly with industry, government, and civil society to provide appropriate mechanisms to avoid identification of IP address assignments that might be associated with single households. Only the relevant ISP will hold their customer’s residential data and can provide that if served with a lawful request from a government agency or individual or business. 

ARIN’s directory is of significant value to any Canadian individual, business or government entity with the need to identify which ISP has been issued a specific IP number. The designated organizational contact identified in Whois for a given IP address block must be reachable so that those needing to urgently trace an internet address (such as law enforcement counterintelligence agencies and other public/private partners in cyber security and anti-abuse, etc. ) can reach the appropriate person without significant delays. Furthermore, the IP address could provide more detail on the location of the website’s host, which may assist when seeking to identify possible fraudulent activity.

ARIN’s Whois directory is essential to protecting the rights of Canadian cultural content creators. For example, if a Canadian artist discovered that a website was illegally making their copyright protected work available for download and wanted to take steps to stop this activity, the Whois service is an important resource for determining what organization is likely serving the content to the Internet. A search of Whois would locate the ISP that was issued the IP address block being used by the website with infringing content. The artist’s legal representatives would then reach out to the designated contact for the ISP to notify them of potentially illegal activity, and thus facilitate resolution.

Canadian national and provincial law enforcement and counterintelligence agencies (and their public/private partners in cyber security and anti-abuse) also rely on open access to the ARIN Whois directory in a diverse range of law enforcement investigations including resolving cyber bullying, mitigating cyber-attacks, and investigating cybercrimes more generally.

ARIN’s policy request

As government considers crafting new or amended remedies for content owners who have been subject to civil or criminal attacks, it is important that government is aware that while ARIN provides this unique service to the entire Canadian community, for free, any remedy calling for a shutdown of the activity must be addressed to the correct party and that will seldom be ARIN. ARIN will generally not be the appropriate entity to receive such an order, which should instead be directed to the entity actually in direct contact with the offending party. ARIN will not have the data as to the particular person using a specific IP number, but instead ARIN’s directory allows the offending party’s ISP to be identified.

ARIN will follow legitimate court orders issued in a Canadian federal or provincial court, but our business-to-business relationship is to the ISP and not with the specific offending party.

Conclusion

ARIN believes that the current successful principle of Internet self-governance can continue to meet the needs of Canadian content creators and other civil society stakeholders. We would be pleased to meet with ISED and Heritage Canada to further discuss how to ensure that the Whois directory remains free, effective and available to support copyright enforcement activities and combat other illicit online activities.