[ppml] Proposed Policy: IPv4 Countdown

[Howard, W. Lee]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ppml-bounces at arin.net [mailto:ppml-bounces at arin.net] On 
> Behalf Of Ted Mittelstaedt
> Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 5:05 PM
> The problem is that so far ARIN's policies say that the fees 
> cover the cost of maintaining allocation information.  This 
> assumes that ARIN cannot use fees as a tool to modify address 
> consumption - although the fact that ARIN has maintained a 
> wavier of IPv6 fees is basically an attempt to use fees as a 
> tool to modify address consumption.

ARIN's membership directed the Board to set fees at a level to
recover expenses.  If the members would like to set a different
goal, the Board they elected will listen.

 
> Since ARIN is a non-profit, if it raises fees in order to 
> modify how organizations consume addresses, you then have a 
> situation where ARIN is now a profit-making organization.  
> (or you have to find something to spend all the additional 
> money on)  If it's a profit-making company you then cannot 
> disallow other profit-making companies from selling IP addresses.

Not exactly.  ARIN's status as a non-profit does not preclude
it from having revenues be higher than expenses.  The IRS does
prohibit certain kinds of activity, including what can be done
any surplus.

ARIN is classified as a 501c6 by the IRS.  
http://www.irs.gov/charities/nonprofits/article/0,,id=96107,00.html

 
> Basically the end result of all of this is that it is 
> difficult to make lots of ARIN fee changes in order to 
> attempt to enforce policy.  It's not impossible, but it is 
> difficult.  And certainly, the fee changes that you can make 
> will not be significant enough to modify the behavior of most 
> organizations with large allocations.
> 
> The best way to approach fees is to make other policy changes 
> then let ARIN decide what to do about the fees.  For example 

When you say, "Let ARIN decide," do you mean the public, the
members, the Board, or the staff?  In the case of fees, it's the
members (who establish principled) and the Board (who set specific
fees within those principles).

I believe there's a formal suggestion process, but I can't lay my 
hands on it right now.  I have seen two specific fee suggestions
on PPML in the past week, and have added them to the agenda for a
future FinCom meeting.

Lee