consistancy

[avb at korax.net]

On Thu, 14 Sep 2000, Brian Wallingford wrote:

> This exact "argument" has been rehashed too many times (I don't doubt
> that, in one forum or another, I've initiated it in the past).  ARIN does
> *not* have the authority to reclaim legacy space.  Nobody has the
> authority to reclaim the terribly, irresponsibly underutilised space
> allocated many moons ago.

What would have to happen for ARIN to get that authority?  Why can't IANA
or ICANN give it the authority to do this?

> Legacy space may as well be written off as unusable.  Saying that almost
> makes me physically ill, but it's a fact.

Oh, man, that is *very* difficult to accept.  IP addresses are a shared
public resource which is globally administered by IANA/ICANN.  They aren't
anyone's property and they never have been.  If the biggest problem with
reclaiming legacy space is political, then surely that can be addressed.  
ARIN may not have the authority to reclaim, but *somebody*, at some higher
level, has this authority, no?  I would imagine that somebody would be
IANA.  To quote RFC2050:

      The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority has authority over all
      number spaces used in the Internet.  This includes Internet
      Address Space. 

It seems pretty clear-cut to me.  What am I missing?

These are all honest questions, btw.  I'm very interested to know what the
obstacles are, because I'm having a real tough time accepting the idea
that this is an unfixable situation.


Regards,
-- 
Alex Bulan <avb at korax.net>
Network Administrator
Korax Online Inc.