[arin-ppml] LAST CALL - Draft Policy ARIN-2012-8: Aligning 8.2 and 8.3 Transfer Policy

[ARIN]

The ARIN Advisory Council (AC) met on 20 December 2012 and decided to
send the following draft policy to last call:

    Draft Policy ARIN-2012-8: Aligning 8.2 and 8.3 Transfer Policy

The AC revised the text after the ARIN XXX Public Policy Meeting and 
asked for an updated staff assessment of the revised text. The 
assessment is available at: 
https://www.arin.net/policy/archive/2012_8_staff_assessment.html

Feedback is encouraged during the last call period. All comments should
be provided to the Public Policy Mailing List. Last call for 2012-8 will
expire on 15 January 2013. After last call the AC will conduct their
last call review.

The draft policy text is below and available at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/

The ARIN Policy Development Process is available at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/pdp.html

Regards,

Communications and Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)


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Draft Policy ARIN-2012-8
Aligning 8.2 and 8.3 Transfer Policy

Date: 27 December 2012

Policy statement:

Replace the first paragraph of section 8.2 with the following (second 
paragraph remains unchanged):

ARIN will consider requests for the transfer of number resources in the 
case of mergers and acquisitions under the following conditions:

  * The new entity must provide evidence that they have acquired assets
    that use the resources to be transferred from the current
    registrant. ARIN will maintain an up-to-date list of acceptable
    types of documentation.
  * The current registrant must not be involved in any dispute as to the
    status of the resources to be transferred.
  * The new entity must sign an RSA covering all resources to be
    transferred.
  * The resources to be transferred will be subject to ARIN policies.
  * The minimum transfer size is the smaller of the original allocation
    size or the applicable minimum allocation size in current policy.

Rationale:

The base intent here is to lower confusion, raise clarity, and level the 
bar between 8.2 and 8.3 transfers. M&A transfers are distinct from 
specified transfers and not all of the same rules can apply - but many 
can and should. Therefor this policy change explicitly adds requirements 
which do not exist in 8.2 policy text today: Source must be the 
undisputed current registered holder, recipient must sign an RSA (and is 
subject to policy), and /24 minimum for IPv4, /48 for IPv6.

Changes following discussion at the ARIN XXX public policy meeting: 1) 
Changed the first bullet. This was an area for objections because it did 
not allow chain of custody transfers, so now instead of saying that the 
purchased company must be the current registrant holder it simply says 
that there can not be any dispute as to who the registered holder is. 2) 
Removed the " such that their continued need is justified" text from the 
second bullet, this was another area of debate at the meeting and 
justification is already covered in paragraph 2 of 8.2 (which remains 
unchanged). 3) Swapped the first two bullets. 4) Added "covering all 
transferred resources" to the RSA bullet, for clarity. 5) Swapped the 
third and fourth bullets. 3) Altered the IPv4 minimum allocation to 
bring it in line with 4.10 resources and any future exceptions.

Changes following PPML discussion in November 2012: a) 'used' was 
changed back to 'use' in the first bullet to prevent a backdoor around 
specified transfers leveraging asset liquidation. b) The third bullet 
was shortened for clarity (removed the word 'current' before 'policy') 
c) The minimum transfer sizes are now pinned to policy rather than hard-set.

Timetable for implementation: immediate