[ppml] Free Market

[William Herrin]

Jonathan,

This has been discussed ad nauseum in recent months. Suggest you read
the archives. The short version is:

ARIN only controls a fraction of the address space.

ARIN has no authority to apply fees or take any other action with
respect to address space which has not been delegated to it by IANA.
This includes ALL of the legacy /8s.

ARIN has questionable authority to apply fees or take action with
respect to address space under its control which was assigned prior to
its existance, that is prior to 1997 or so. This has to do with
elements of its charter which allowed it to inherit responsibility for
parts of "the swamp."

Within the remaining space where ARIN's authority is clear, there
simply isn't enough waste to make it worth a recovery effort. If they
made an effort anyway, their action in light of the address space not
under their control would unfairly harm recent registrants who have
been using space efficiently.

IANA itself has questionable authority to take action with respect to
the legacy /8's. While IANA is the defacto authority for number
assignments that authority is not cemented by statute, contract or
precedent. Indeed, more than a few /8's were assigned before IANA even
existed.

Regards,
Bill Herrin



On 8/25/07, Jonathan Barker <jonathan at qx.net> wrote:
> All,
>
> I have a proposal. In an earlier e-mail someone made mention of the word
> 'oil'. IPv4 addresses are like oil, in that it is a finite resource, and
> one day... we will run out. The way our economic markets handle this is
> simple. Increase the price of oil. Allow economic demand to set the
> price, and as the price of oil increases, other, often environmentally
> friendlier technologies take hold.
>
> What if we increased the price of new ipv4 allocations, across the board
> - and altered the current pricing scheme, such that those with legacy
> /8s pay what they are truly worth. This would be an incentive for those
> who have large volumes of unused space just sitting there to get rid of
> it, but also allow growth and use for those who are willing to pay for
> it. IPv6 prices, of course, remain forever at rock bottom.
>
> If you inserted economics into it - you might see some large blocks
> being returned. I know of one ISP here in Lexington that has 130,000
> legacy IPv4 addresses. They use... maybe 2000. In fact, if Arin were to
> turn down a request for me - they'd be my first stop. I'd buy a t-1,
> with a /19 attached. I can't use the T-1 of bandwidth - but I'd
> certainly advertize the space out my Gig-E or OC12 links. That is an
> example of what some of us have to do to get additional IPv4 space in a
> hurry.
>
> I know starting up, we had to get our address space from upstreams. When
> we'd cancel an upstream... .renumbering time! Now that we have ARIN
> space, we don't have to do that - but if ARIN can't assign it - I'll
> certainly 'buy' it from someone else using the method detailed above.
> Paying monthly for "bandwidth" but actually for IP space.
>
> So, one way or another when IPv4 becomes scares, restricted or
> unavailable, the market will handle it. Why not shift the burden now
> onto those who hold all those massive allocations, and use ARIN to
> regulate the price of IP space.
>
> Maybe we should even be fair about it, and charge a fee for each and
> every address assigned by Arin. I'd be happy with 30 cents, per IP
> address, per year. That would be a nice incentive for those who don't
> use their space, to return it. It would also speed the switchover to
> IPv6, by inserting an economic incentive to do so. That's my 30 cents.
>
> Jonathan
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-- 
William D. Herrin                  herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
3005 Crane Dr.                        Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/>
Falls Church, VA 22042-3004