The RIPE WHOIS Database contains information about IP address space. This information indicates the country where resources were first allocated or assigned, but is not an authoritative statement of the location where any specific resource may currently be in use. Using this information for IP to country mapping may result in inaccuracies. As the Internet is global, it is easy for users to either intentionally or unintentionally use IP addresses that have been assigned to a company conducting business in another region. For example, a user located in Italy may receive service from a company with a link to Japan via a satellite company run out of the US. Which country the address space is registered under depends on their business and networking arrangements. Information about IP address space allocations is available in two forms: 1. Monthly reports of data relating to allocations within the RIPE region. These reports are available at: ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/stats The format of the RIPE data and the conditions for its use are set out in the readme file at: ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/stats/_README-ripe-stats.txt Links to statistics produced by the other Regional Internet Registries (APNIC and ARIN) are available at: http://www.aso.icann.org/stats/index.html 2. Text file containing all inetnum objects in the RIPE Database. The file is available at: ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/dbase/split/ripe.db.inetnum.gz This file contains information about assignments and allocations. For more information about the format of the database objects please refer to the RIPE Database Reference Manual at: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/databaseref-manual.html