[ARIN-consult] Policies restricting usage of Internet number resource blocks

[John Curran]

ARIN AC Members -

A topic arose yesterday in open mic regarding policy restrictions on services offered to certain types of blocks in the Internet number registry system, and I wanted to take a moment to be clear about my remarks.  In particularly, it occurred to me that my repeating the same phrases several times didn’t prove particularly conducive to effective communications (and I usually know better), so instead I’m going to try to clarify my remarks below -

It is worth noting that the vast majority of registry services for IP blocks are either hierarchical in nature (reverse DNS, RDAP, RPKI, etc.) or allow for inclusion of third-party contact data (Whois, IRR) into their systems.  As a result, there is actually very little from a technical perspective that prevents any given Internet number resource holder from operating their own subdelegation infrastructure or delegating number resource blocks on a temporary/permanent basis to any other party.

This makes it particularly important to be very clear about any restrictions on subdelegation for any particular type of IP number resource blocks, and make these restrictions on resource holder (if indeed restrictions are desired.) ARIN will of course align our services provided for such resources to be compliant with registry policy, but such policy should be defined as limitations on usage by the resource holders of those blocks and be established by the community after full discussion of the associated benefits/risks.

This also has the benefit of freeing the ARIN policy discussion from concerns regarding services and fees – ARIN will respect any policies that restrict resource holders from subdelegation of specific blocks but no discussion of services or fees is required so long as the policy discussion is clear about what constraints the resource holders face for specific types of Internet number resource blocks.

I hope this helps clarify my otherwise incoherent ramblings yesterday - please don’t hesitate to ask if there are any questions whatsoever…

Thanks!
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers



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