[arin-discuss] ARIN billing practice

[Schiller, Heather A (HeatherSkanks)]

I was reading Chris Morrow's comment on Nanog - about spammers.. 

"The end of the discussion was along the lines of: "Yes, we know this
guy is bad news, but he always comes to us with the proper paperwork and
numbers, there's nothing in the current policy set to deny him address
resources. Happily though he never pays his bill after the first 12
months so we just reclaim whatever resources are allocated then."  (yes,
comments about more address space ending up on BL's were made, and that
he probably doesn't pay because after the first 3 months the address
space is 'worthless' to him...)"

..and got to wondering, "Why doesn't ARIN charge first and last years
"rent" on resource allocations?"

If you notify ARIN before your bill is due, that you will be returning
the resource and not renewing, you get a refund.  If you don't notify
ARIN and your bill lapses, then ARIN isn't out the money they would have
gotten from you, during the time they hold your resource before/during
revocation for non-payment. (since most folks keep using it, you should
still have to pay for it..)

I'm not claiming this would make the spam thing any better.. just raise
the financial bar, make them have to do work if they want their money
back.  

I don't know whether I'm even in favor of this or not.. but just about
every other 'utility' type service has this practice, and maybe this is
worth considering.  Maybe there is a reason ARIN doesn't do this..?

Thoughts?

 --Heather