[ARIN-consult] ARIN RSA Version 12

[David Huberman]

Hello,

I appreciate that the proposed RSA provides some limits and process requirements for ARIN's right to make unilateral changes. Given how significantly a change to the agreement could affect a Holder's rights, and the difficulty in defining types of changes or circumstances in which changes could be made, section 1(e) should be revised to require that agreements that Holders have already entered cannot be changed by ARIN without ratification by Member vote. 

While we have concerns about the breadth of rights and narrowness of accountabilities for ARIN in various sections of this version of the RSA, our top concern with this version are the provisions around number resources not being property. We agree with Marc Lindsey's comments that requiring Holders to agree with ARIN's position conflicts with the secondary market that has developed, and it's unfair for the RSA to require Holders to agree with ARIN's position.  Marc's suggestion to restructure the provision as an acknowledgment of ARIN's position (but not the Holder's) is a good compromise between the wishes of ARIN and the business needs of ARIN's customers in a world where IPv4 addresses are not available from ARIN and are thus routinely bought and sold as property. 

I would like to thank ARIN for offering the community a consultative period to evaluate and comment on the draft proposed RSA version 12/LRSA version 4 (which shows substantial improvements), and I hope that ARIN will follow a similar process for any future changes to the agreement or for significant policy changes.  

David R Huberman
Principal, Global IP Addressing
Microsoft Corporation