[arin-ppml] A compromise on legacy space?

[Stephen Sprunk]

Marshall Eubanks wrote:
> On Sep 10, 2008, at 10:46 AM, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
>> Leo Bicknell wrote:
>>> I do not believe ARIN can dump the entry from their internal 
>>> database or assign the same numbers to someone else.
>>
>> I do not see any law or contract that would prevent ARIN from 
>> assigning or allocating those numbers to someone else.
>>
>> Numbers are not property.  ARIN is selling the service of providing 
>> uniqueness of registration, not numbers.  If the numbers are no 
>> longer registered to party X, they can be freely assigned or 
>> allocated to party Y.
>
> But how, in that case, do they guarantee uniqueness ?

The guarantee of uniqueness is only among registered numbers, i.e. no 
two organizations can register the same number.  ARIN, like any other 
RIR, has no ability to prevent organizations from using numbers that 
aren't registered to them.

We've seen countless times where orgs pick random numbers in 
"unassigned" space, rather than getting them from their RIR, and there 
is a collision years later when it gets legitimately assigned to someone 
else by an RIR.  Should those numbers be marked as "bad" and never given 
to someone else, so that the squatter is free to use them forever?  
Think about the consequences of that.

S