[ppml] IPv4 wind-down

[Geoff Huston]

>I have a couple of specific questions about this above ground v4
>trade.
>
>Lets assume for the moment that the property thing is worked out and also
>asusme that you can definitively state that a given person has the
>authority to sell/rent/what ever a partacular block of IP addresses.  Lets
>also assume their is a fair market for IPv4 adresses.
>
>1. Could that person sell/rent/what ever a portion of that network.  Say I
>am offically representing IBM, could I sell 9.9.9.0/24 but keep the rest
>of the /8 to use for myself... or maybe sell off other /24s at a later
>date or to a different org?  Or would I be required to sell the entire /8?

When you use terms such as "require" you are assume some artifact of 
control in such a market. Its difficult to picture where and how such 
control or regulation may be expressed and under what form of 
authority, if one looks at this as purely as a monetized 
international market. On the other hand its  likely that some form of 
regulation will exist in this space, but the who and the how remains 
pretty open, as well as the authority and enforcement models that are 
conventionally associated with control structures. Given that level 
of uncertainty, its tough to then start guessing about the forms of 
such imposed controls.


>2. If that person put 9.9.9.0/24 up for auction, could they sell it to the
>highest bidder?  Or would the highest bidder also need to show justified
>need of that space?  In other words does money become the only measure of
>if the space is justified?

Here the "need to show" becomes questions of "show to whom?" and the 
consequences to both parties (seller and buyer) of the failure to do 
so, and the judgement of "need". This appears to lead straight back 
to the questions of market control raised above.

regards,

   Geoff