[ppml] Proposed Policy: IPv4 Countdown

[Stephen Sprunk]

Thus spake <michael.dillon at bt.com>
> To really get a sense of what happened, you need to read BOTH
> the petition submitted by ARIN and the judge's ruling. And
> although a large part of the ruling dismisses stuff because of
> time issues, the judges orders to Kremen and ARIN implicitly
> show support for ARIN. For instance, the judge said nothing
> about the legality of the RSA, but he did order Kremen to sign
> the RSA. Without the greater context, it is easy to miss these
> subtleties.

I'll save some googling for those who want to read:

http://eplaw.us/kremen/mot-modify-order.pdf
http://www.arin.net/media/clarification-granted.pdf
http://www.arin.net/media/dismissal-granted.pdf

One can read the decisions several ways.  Things are looking up for ARIN, 
but both of the issues above were settled via procedural technicalities, not 
an actual assessment of the RSA or ARIN's practices or authority in general. 
While I'm glad that ARIN's counsel won them by the cheapest means possible, 
and this does set a (very) weak precedent, we still don't have a definitive 
case.

I do note that the court, in the dismissal order, notes that anti-trust 
actions can be taken against even non-profit orgs.  It doesn't affect the 
outcome in this case, so one must wonder why the court included that 
superfluous point in an otherwise-succinct order.

S

Stephen Sprunk      "Those people who think they know everything
CCIE #3723         are a great annoyance to those of us who do."
K5SSS                                             --Isaac Asimov