ARIN /8s ?

Karl,

>Go to PSI and say "I want a class C".  They aren't going to simply hand
>you one without payment.

Actually, many ISPs do.  However, what happens when you leave PSI?
What happens when you take that number to (say) Sprint or UUNet and
demand they route traffic to it through their networks?

>I've seen a fair number of address blocks bought and sold over the last
>couple of years.  The prices vary, but I've seen a very rough rule of
>thumb of $1 and up per address for larger blocks.

And what happens when InterNIC finds out about such transactions?

>It is fairly obvious to anyone who has ever had to deal with "rights to
>use" that a right (or even a privilge) to use an IP address is a property
>right with a value.

You are presumably using legal terms in a forum composed of people
with little to no legal knowledge (although some may pretend
otherwise).  It may be "fairly obvious" to you, I doubt strongly it is
"fairly obvious" to others.

You claim there is a "right to use" and "property" rights in the
context of IP addresses and in a strictly legal sense, perhaps you are
correct (don't know -- never considered a career in law).  Yet in the
real world, I am not aware of any cases or rulings which would impart
these attributes to IP addresses.  Feel free to point me to such
rulings, I'd honestly be interested.

You make the analogy of a drivers license.  I would argue the
fundamental difference here is that a drivers license allows one to
make use of public roads (as far as I know you do not need a drivers
license to make use of purely private roads, correct me if I'm wrong).
The Internet, as I'm sure you are aware, is an interconnection of
private networks.  Exactly what "right to use" do you have over my
network, regardless of what IP address you are using?

Regards,
-drc