Daniel,
Exactly.
Your posting reminds me of several things:
<> The Internet is a fundamentally cooperative enterprise. While we all
look forward to the increasing advantages of it *also* being a highly
competitive enterprise, we have to remind ourselves that it remains
fundamentally cooperative.
<> We in the states have benefited from the Merit PRDB effort during the
last (almost) seven years. Although the PRDB has become obsolete with
the rise of the current multi-backbone/exchange-point architecture,
we should understand the historic contribution of the Merit PRDB effort.
<> During those seven years, the RIPE community understood that, even
lacking a central backbone architecture, a routing database was valuable
as a means of allowing independent competitive Internet efforts in
Europe to cooperate technically in a way that promoted the growth and
quality of the Internet in Europe.
<> We in the States often overlook the fact that the RIPE routing database
effort has succeeded in a European climate that was and is highly
competitive and often contentious. We in the States need to (continue to)
learn that technical cooperation is essential *especially* when business
competition is present.
<> Every effort should be made by providers and users to help the (national
and international) Routing Registry to succeed.
<> While I wouldn't term the RS as an 'enforcer', I would assert that the
quality of the RS will promote the acceptance and usefulness of the RR
effort generally.
-- Guy