[arin-discuss] [ppml] Counsel statement on Legacy assignments?

[Dean Anderson]

On Mon, 8 Oct 2007, Jeremy Anthony Kinsey wrote:

> 
> On Oct 8, 2007, at 11:13 AM, Dean Anderson wrote:
> >
> >
> > ARIN has an obligation to honor those government agreements.  ARIN has
> > honored those agreements and ARIN's obligations under those agreements
> > for more than 10 years.
> >
> 
> Understood...
> 
> So who has the "obligation" to pay for this?

ARIN has that obligation.  Just like the private toll company that has
to maintain the road in return for the opportunity to collect tolls,
likewise ARIN the obligation to maintain the government records in
return for the privilege and opportunity to collect tolls on new
delegations. Internet Legacy's are no different from legacy underground
cable rights that pre-dated the toll company.  The toll company may have
to store and maintain those records, too.

What ARIN is proposing is kind of like the toll road operator saying
(after 11 years) that it doesn't want to maintain the roads anymore; it
will only maintain the toll booths, since only the toll booths produce
revenue, and the roads are just an expense outside the toll booths.  It
says this even though for 11 years, it maintained the roads and it was
always understood that it had to maintain the roads.  Not only that, but
it was the third such toll operator, and each of the prior operators
also maintained the roads and understood that was required of them.

Not only all this, but ARIN also has saved up 7 years of operating
capital, and as a result, ARIN stains non-profit status to have such
continuous long term profit. It is plainly collecting too much on too
little, with (some say) too much staff travel expense.

This is an unjustifiably ridiculous position and suggests to me that it
really is time for a new operator.

> > None of the registrations are property of ARIN. ARIN doesn't have
> > 'title' to the IP blocks either.  The blocks and the registration
> > records belong to the government, and ARIN will have to transfer the
> > registrations to the successor of ARIN as its final obligation.
> 
> But ARIN, more importantly it's members apparently "own" the
> "obligation" to pay for the management of these blocks, correct?  I'm
> not sure I understand how any organization could possibly expect it's
> members to pay for obligations that they have no benefit in...

In return for assuming the burden of obligations and costs of operating
the registry service, the members of ARIN have had the privileges of
making the operational decisions and have had the opportunity to collect
fees on new people since 1996. They didn't get that opportunity without
some obligations and costs.  ARIN is just an _operator_ of the registry
service for the DoC.  This comes with some obligations and expenses, and
isn't just all profit.

> > Ok. Fair enough. Can you ask the Counsel the prepare a formal
> > statement on ARIN's obligations to the Legacy Holder's through the
> > government agreements with the Legacy Holders?
> 
> To that end I would also hope that the burden for paying for such
> obligation be defined, ie., who is paying for these "obligations"?

John, can we get this formal opinion? I understand it may take a little
while to have Atty Ryan produce this.  Can you commit to having the
opinion produced?

		--Dean

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