The RIPE Labs Podcast

In our latest episode, Raffaele Sommese of the University of Twente shares insights from him and his colleagues on Italy’s Piracy Shield and how rapid-response blocking works in practice. We get into the technical impact, how it can be measured, and the consequences for connectivity.

Raffaele is assistant professor at University of Twente’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science. For more details on the research he and his colleagues carried out on this topic, check out their academic paper on the impact of Piracy Shield or read the summarised version on RIPE Labs: Live-Event Blocking at Scale: Effectiveness vs. Collateral Damage in Italy’s Piracy Shield.

00:20 - Piracy Shield on the AGCOM website
00:50 - Read more about cases where Cloudflare and Google were blocked by Piracy Shield. Since recording this episode, things have escalated, with Cloudflare recently having threatened to pull out of Italy after receiving fines issued by AGCOM.
05:10 - Some background on the law behind Piracy Shield
10:20 - Watch Raffaele's talk on this topic from RIPE 91 (Bucharest, October 2025)
16:40 - AGCOM website for checking blocked resources and an alternative page run by Infotech (an Italian ISP)
42:30 - A 2025 article on anti-piracy developments in Spain
46:50 - More on Piracy Shield's expansion to TV
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ICP-2 lays out the criteria for the recognition of new RIRs. But what about the rest of the lifecycle of the organisations that coordinate the allocation and public registration of unique IP numbers? In this episode, Andrei Robachevsky of the NRO NC talks about the ICP-2 review.

In November 2023, the NRO EC requested that the ASO AC "review and consider improvements to ICP-2". The NRO NC (in its role as ASO AC - see notes on organisations and acronyms below) thereby began a comprehensive review of the original document and put together a process for the creation of an updated ICP-2 through open consultation with the community. Having reached step seven in that process, the NRO NC is now receiving community feedback on version 2 of the draft RIR Governance Document (until 7 November 2025). The entire ICP-2 review process has been documented in detail in the ICP-2 section over on the NRO NC website.

A note on organisations and acronyms

ICP-2: 'Internet Coordination Policy 2: Criteria for Establishment of New Regional Internet Registries' - document published and accepted by the ICANN Board of Directors in 2001.

RIRs: The Regional Internet Registries; who coordinate the allocation and public registration of unique IP addresses and AS numbers for their service regions:

RIPE NCC: Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre (est. 1992)
APNIC: Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (est. 1993)
ARIN: American Registry for Internet Numbers (est. 1997)
LACNIC: Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (est. 2002)
AFRINIC: African Network Information Centre (est. 2004)

ICANN (est. 1998): The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers; oversees the global allocation of domain names and unique Internet numbers; delegates these resources to the RIRs in its IANA function.

IANA: The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority; originally Jon Postel; now a function carried out by ICANN.

NRO: The Number Resource Organisation; coordinating body for the five RIRs.

NRO EC: The NRO Executive Council; executive body for the NRO; composed of five members, one from each RIR.

NRO NC: The NRO Number Council; fills the role of ASO AC for ICANN; composed of fifteen members, three from each RIR community.

ASO: The Address Supporting Organisation; advises the ICANN Board on global IP address policies.

ASO AC: The ASO Address Council; role within ICANN's ASO to ensure the proper implementation of global policy development process across the RIR regions; filled by the NRO NC.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Internet has long been fertile ground for innovative technologies to grow and openly compete. But having emerged out of these conditions, certain services and the companies that offer them have come to dominate and stifle the very diversity that made their existence possible. Our guest in the episode of the RIPE Labs podcast, Maria Farrell, talks about why we must - and how we can - rewild the Internet.

Show notes:
00:00 - Find out more about our excellent guest, Maria Farrell
02:26 - Maria at RIPE 90
05:48 - More about Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott
07:15 - Find out more about Robin Berjon
08:46 - We Need to Rewind the Internet by Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon
11:36 - Meredith Whittaker speaking at CCC
16:32 - Leslie Daigle's The Internet Invariants ...and Leslie at RIPE 90
20:10 - RFC 9518 'Centralization, Decentralization, and Internet Standards'
21:30 - Hisham Ibrahim on RIPE Labs
28:55 - Cory Doctorow on competitive compatibility ("comcom")
37:45 - Interview with Jonathan Kanter on Big Tech, Antitrust Laws, and the Future of AI
43:20 - On Ireland's relationship with U.S. tech
51:45 - Anna Wilson at RIPE 90 It's ok to be smaller: how to not get overwhelmed
52:10 - Bert Hubert on European cloud
52:18 - Meredith Whittaker on the end of big tech
01:00:48: - Bert Hubert on open source alternatives to big tech services
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is “the Internet”? And why is it not just our access to a search engine or our favourite social media platform? In this episode, Hisham Ibrahim, RIPE NCC’s Chief Community Officer, breaks down the layers of the Internet ecosystem, explains what a stable and resilient Internet means, and clarifies the difference between digital governance and Internet governance.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The digital infrastructure we're all so dependent on has a negative - and growing - impact on the environment. In this episode, Michael Oghia talks about strategies for breaking down the big problem of digital sustainability, strategies for building a more efficient Internet, and challenges that come with the adoption of more sustainable practices.

Show notes

01:40 - Michael on RIPE Labs
08:20 - Our World in Data gives similar numbers for the % of global carbon emissions from the aviation industry, as does this broader report from the European parliament.
11:00 - E-waste dumps in Ghana
11:10 - Map of conflict mineral mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
11:27 - Article from the Guardian on projected energy demands from AI data centres
12:50 - Article on using 'waste heat' as a source of power
13:20 - Michael RIPE Labs article on refurbishment as a strategy for digital sustainability
15:30 - Michael's RIPE Labs article on Why Small and Medium-Size Operators Should Care About Sustainability
17:15 - Read more about the origins of the term 'carbon footprint' in this nice piece by Tom Greenwood
37:05 - The resources Michael is pointing us to here are available via the same article: Why Small and Medium-Size Operators Should Care About Sustainability
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.