[ppml] Fw: US District Court, Oct 23rd

[Michael.Dillon at btradianz.com]

> Any news on what happened? 

Some have asked me personally, "What on earth are
you talking about?". If you were at the meeting
then you know, and if you read the transcript
of the meeting here (scroll down to MR. RYAN)
http://www.arin.net/meetings/minutes/ARIN_XVIII/ppm1_transcript.html#anchor_1
then you also know.

Basically, ARIN counsel stated at the meeting 
that the lawsuit where Kremen is suing ARIN, 
would come before Judge Ware of the US District
Court in San Jose on Oct 23rd. This happens to
be the same judge who earlier ruled that Kremen
was the rightful owner of the domain sex.com.

In a nutshell, Kremen is claiming that he owns some
IP addresses and that ARIN should give them to him
right away with no formalities, which seems to imply
that he doesn't have to comply with any of ARIN's
policies and procedures. For instance, he has refused
to sign a registration services agreement.

The results of this are important, because it could
undermine ARIN's fundamental democratic nature and
serve as a precedent for US government regulation of
stuff like ARIN does. After all, if a court can simply
set aside ARIN's open processes and democratically-made 
decisions in favor of someone who can afford to launch
a lawsuit, then all of us are in a rather unstable
position regarding our right to use the IP addresses
that we have been allocated. It also raises doubts about
an ISPs ability to withdraw assigned addresses when a
customer ceases to be connected to their network.
If ARIN's right to run things our own way is not
recognized by the courts then the only way I can see
to fix that is via new legislation which could well 
lead to regulation.

This is darned important stuff and I wish that someone
was following it in the way that groklaw.net follows
the SCO-IBM dispute.

--Michael Dillon