[ARIN-consult] Consultation on ARIN Fees

[John Curran]

On 21 Jul 2021, at 12:07 PM, William Herrin <bill at herrin.us> wrote:
> ...
> 
> An uncontracted legacy registrant has certain rights at common law.

Bill - 

	That’s an Interesting assertion indeed ("An uncontracted legacy registrant has certain rights at common law.”) – given the lack of determinations to that effect, you’ve entered some rather speculative territory. 

	Regarding rights, it’s worth noting that all ARIN customers (whether RSA or LRSA, as those are the same at this point) have very clear rights that are spelled out in the agreement – these include rights to be the exclusive registrant for their entries in the ARIN database, right of transfer in accordance with policies, etc.  Legacy resource holders do have some distinguishing aspects - e.g. they cannot be charged registration fees that exceed those charged to comparable non-legacy holders.  You may not appreciate the rights provided, but they are present and delineated in the registry agreement. 

	Where you are correct is the statement that ARIN maintains substantial power in the overall agreement, but that’s because ARIN is actually the community’s own organization and operates under member-based model that allows the community to elect its own governing board…  this is far stronger than what what one receives from a more “commercial" relationship.  In fact, one of the more significant benefits to moving to uniform fees for registry customers is precisely focused on that point, in that it allows us to open up ARIN governance and voting to all those IPv4 and IPv6 registry customers who wish to participate. 

Thanks!
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers