[arin-discuss] Legacy RSA

[Dean Anderson]

I attended VON in Boston today, and quite unexpectedly ran into the ARIN
booth.  I met Einar Bohlin and Jon Worley.  I have several unfavorable
comments, but I want to emphasize that Einar and Jon were both very
congenial.  The negative aspect of my comments have nothing whatsoever
to do with there personal performance.  We had a quite enjoyable
discussion about IPv6 and allocation policy and what it will take to get
IPv6 off the ground.

Concern:

They mentioned they thought that ARIN was going to begin accepting
Legacy RSA agreements this week. I had understood that ARIN was going to
solicit more community input and formal legal opinion before proceeding
on the matter. Some clarification would be appreciated.

Negative comments:

There was virtually no one at VON (Voice on the Net) who had anything
whatsoever to do with anything related to ARIN or IP Address
Registration.  I attended with a couple of clients who perform carrier
services. My client who was with me, was bored to tears and showed up 10
minutes later with the other person, when they finished with the block
of booths where ARIN was. This gave me a chance to talk with Einar and
Jon, which was pleasant. But when my clients showed up, one asked (he
was joking) what ARIN had to do with telephony systems.  ARIN obviously
had nothing to do with telephony, which put the whole boondoggle into
focus.  The people who come to VON, come to see and/or buy VOIP products
and services. This has nothing to do with ARIN.

A for-profit company spends marketing dollars expecting to reach the
market that will buy its services. There was no market for ARIN at VON.  
ARIN is a market monopolist; there is only one registry in North America
and so there is no "market" for its services to compete in.  There is no
one who needs IP Address blocks, but says "I can't get them. I don't
know who to ask"  Certainly they can't say "Hmm. RIPE, LacNIC, or ARIN.  
RIPE and LacNIC didn't come to VON. I'll buy from ARIN, I like their
registry services better".

This was just a junket; part of that $400,000 or so 46% increase in the
travel budget that I cited a couple weeks ago. Done under the euphemism
of "outreach".  These trade shows are indeed a lot of fun. I wish I had
an extra $400,000 to spend attending trade shows, staying in nice
hotels, flying around. Parties are always great when you have no sales
quotas to meet.  But these trade shows are a total, complete waste of
ARIN resources.  A non-profit company is expected to be a steward for
the benefit of the public interest and its defined purpose. The public
interest is not served here, and it is hard to find anything that is
served in the charter of ARIN.

But otherwise, I enjoyed the chance to talk to Einar and Jon, especially
after I felt I couldn't attend Albuquerque because of the unrestrained
presence of persons from Nanog who have made physical threats of
violence against me.

		--Dean

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