[ppml] Another question on Policy Proposal 2007-8

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

> What if I am looking to buy a company that has address space.  When 
> listing the assets of the company, should the number resources ever 
> be included?  The answer, if the space has come from ARIN (or any 
> RIR) is no.  But what if the resources were obtained pre-RIR?

Then no agreement was signed and therefore the status of these numbers
is unclear. That does not mean that anyone OWNs them. It means that
ARIN's control over those numbers is unknown and untested in the courts.

It could mean that IANA controls those numbers. It could mean that the
users of those numbers don't have to comply with ARIN's rules regarding
justification or publishing whois data. But it doesn't mean that the
numbers can be sold as assets because U.S. precedent is that network
addresses are not property and are managed under a regulatory regime.

In the case of IP addresses and ARIN, it is a self-regulatory regime. In
the case of telephone numbers and NANPA it is a combined federal/state
regulatory regime in which the FCC sets the rules and state PUCs may
allow variances from those rules. In any case, you can't sell a
thousands-block and you can't sell an ARIN allocation so why would
anyone think they can sell an IANA allocation?

> Assuming there is a difference between resources obtained from ARIN 
> or before ARIN/RIR, can I tell this from ARIN's whois server?  During 
> the due diligence phase of acquisition I probably should know if the 
> address space comes under ARIN's transfer policy.

If you are doing due diligence, then what document would be acceptable
to indicate that an address block does not come under ARIN's transfer
policy? A court ruling? A lawyer's statement? Given the recent court
ruling http://www.arin.net/media/clarification-granted.pdf that requires
Kremen to file a tranfer application, sign an RSA and comply with the
RSA, I wouldn't pay a single penny for an IP address block in and of
itself. The value lies in the network, not the IP addresses.

--Michael Dillon