[ppml] IPv4 "Up For Grabs" proposal

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: ppml-bounces at arin.net [mailto:ppml-bounces at arin.net]On Behalf Of
>James Hess
>Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 5:38 AM
>To: ARIN Address Policy
>Subject: Re: [ppml] IPv4 "Up For Grabs" proposal
>
>
>> incentives. The most ARIN does is to try and make sure that ARIN itself
>> is not a barrier to IPv6 adoption because ARIN realizes that IPv6 is the
>> only way to resolve the problem of IPv4 address exhaustion.
>
>IPv6 creates other problems (i.e. it incurs costs due to the large 
>size of the
>addresses it uses). It is not necessarily the only way to resolve 
>the problem
>of IPv4 exhaustion, and it's not a RIR's place to try to deprecate 
>the IPv4,
>the RIRs are the stewards of the address space and continue to do their
>job, otherwise, a new RIR could be formed to fill in the void.

The new RIR is an empty threat.  Any new RIR formed to track IPv4
that was deprecated would be mainly doing it for the legacy IPv4 holders
as they are the ones with a financial interest in NOT having to 
replace their free IPv4 allotments with costly IPv6.  And the new
RIR would need to be funded and so the legacy holders would have to pay,
which defeats the entire point of holding on to a legacy IPv4 allotment.

>
>In many ways, IPv6 is the superior, cleaner,  "more correct" technology.
>But superior, "more correct" technologies do not always win the 
>marketplace,

IP addressing isn't a marketplace.  That is like saying let the market
decide between VHS and Betamax.  It was a disaster and cost millions
for customers who bought Betamax.  That is why they didn't repeat it
with DVD's and have multiple incompatible formats.

As much as some people seem to think that every problem can be solved
by the free market, this attitude created disasters with the electrical
power market and a number of others, when tried.  Standardization is
a lot more important for large markets than you want to believe.  Haven't
you ever wondered why milk in the grocery store no matter what dairy
makes it, comes in the same plastic jugs that are the same size and
same material?

Ted