[ppml] Wasted netspace (recovering) (fwd)

[william at elan.net]

I'm reposting somebody elses message sent to NANOG (apologies for those 
who have seen it) as its regarding issues that are more proper to be 
discussed on this list (i.e. suggestion of policy change to require 
rejustifying ip block usage after 5 years).

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Howdy.  This afternoon I was working with a used switch I recently
purchased when I noticed it still had the previous owner's IP in it.  I
noted that it wasn't a reserved address that I recognized so I looked it
up.  As it turned out the IP belonged to Occidental Petroleum Corp
(oxy.com) and was part of a /16 (155.224.0.0/16).  The fact that it they
had a /16 was a bit surprising.  Seeing how it was allocated back in 1992,
I guess I really shouldn't be that surprised.  I figured they must have
enough remote offices to reasonably use a large portion of that /16.  
While loading their website I noted that www.oxy.com fell into another
netblock (208.35.252.113/24).  I was curious enough (read: bored) that I
eventually queried Arin's WHOIS for Occidental Petroleum and was quite
surprised at what I saw.

http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=occidental%20petroleum

OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM (OCCIDE-1)
Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OPC)
Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OPC-2)
Occidental Petroleum IP (OPI-1)
Occidental Petroleum Corporation (AS26517) OXYHOUAS-01    26517
OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM FON-106789196846411 (NET-63-166-189-0-1)
63.166.189.0 - 63.166.189.255
OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM FON-106789094446405 (NET-63-166-185-0-1)
63.166.185.0 - 63.166.185.255
OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM FON-106789068846359 (NET-63-166-184-0-1)
63.166.184.0 - 63.166.184.255
OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM FON-106790118446425 (NET-63-166-225-0-1)
63.166.225.0 - 63.166.225.255
OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM FON-110111612871621 (NET-65-161-178-224-1) 
65.161.178.224 - 65.161.178.255
OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM FON-349201920042097 (NET-208-35-252-0-1)
208.35.252.0 - 208.35.252.255
Occidental Petroleum Corp. OXY1-NET (NET-155-224-0-0-1)
155.224.0.0 - 155.224.255.255
Occidental Petroleum Corporation OXY-2 (NET-170-189-0-0-1)
170.189.0.0 - 170.189.255.255
Occidental Petroleum Corporation OXY-3 (NET-199-248-164-0-1)
199.248.164.0 - 199.248.168.255
Occidental Petroleum IP FON-106769945643237 (NET-63-163-205-0-1) 
63.163.205.0 - 63.163.205.255
Occidental Petroleum IP FON-106780672044417 (NET-63-165-112-0-1) 
63.165.112.0 - 63.165.112.255

They have not one /16 but two /16s, eight /24s, one /22, and one /27.  
Does this seem a little excessive to anyone else?  I can think of a dozen 
state-run universities off of the top of my head that could never dream of 
justifying a /16, let alone more.

I hate to pummel a dead horse but would it be worthwhile to ask these
corporations to relinguish netblocks that they don't use or can't justify
keeping?  "Because I'm paying you" isn't a good enough reason IMHO.  
Would it be worthwhile to have organizations with direct allocations
submit a netblock usage summary every 4-5 years to justify keeping their
existing blocks?  I know it might be hard for ARIN to justify taking back
someone's netblocks.  It just irks me to no ends to see a considerable 
amount of wasted netspace such as this.

Pardon me for asking because I imagine this has been discussed many times
before.

Justin Shore