[ppml] Understanding the ARIN lawsuit

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

It is not easy to understand a lawsuit and its outcome, not even for
lawyers. There is usually a flurry of documents, none of which provides
a "management summary" of the case. You have to read through several
documents, often wading through repetitive statements that are
subsidiary to the heart of the case. 

Now I am not a lawyer, but I did trouble to hunt down some of the court
filings and see whether ARIN came out on top or not. Earlier today I
posted a message advising people to read certain documents and that
advice was not terribly accurate and it certainly wasn't easy to follow.


However, this is what I think captures the heart of the matter:

ARIN's motion to dismiss: http://eplaw.us/kremen/mot-dismiss.pdf
This document is the closest to a summary of the issues in the case.

Order granting motion for clarification
http://www.arin.net/media/clarification-granted.pdf
It is the conclusion of this document that shows how the judge basically
supports ARIN's policy and processes. There isn't any hint that ARIN is
somehow illegitimate or acting improperly in its activities. It begins
by requiring Kremen to file a transfer application which seems to me to
imply that the judge is telling Kremen that he could have saved a lot of
headache by just following ARIN's rules in the first place.

The judgement
http://www.arin.net/media/judgement.pdf
Of course this doesn't say much but it says with some finality, that
ARIN won the case.

Now I am not a lawyer and the law courses that I did take were on
Canadian law, not US law, so take my opinions with a grain of salt. I
also do not represent ARIN in any way. On this mailing list I'm just an
individual participating in the open public policy process. 

It's odd that ARIN's motions are not on its website here
http://www.arin.net/media/index.html but a lawyer who took some interest
in the case has posted a news item on his site
http://eplaw.us/news/2006/10/25 with links to many of the filings. A
google search for "arin kremen site:eplaw.us" will get you to these. Of
course, any discussion of this probably belongs on a law blog or legal
mailing list somewhere.

-------------------------------------------------------
Michael Dillon
Capacity Management, 66 Prescot St., London, E1 8HG, UK
Mobile: +44 7900 823 672    Internet: michael.dillon at bt.com
Phone: +44 20 7650 9493    Fax: +44 20 7650 9030

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