[ppml] Slashdot and Ars Technica Commentary

[Iljitsch van Beijnum]

On 28-mei-2007, at 3:14, Joel Jaeggli wrote:

>> It is interesting to note that the discussion always comes back to
>> the legacy class A issue. I'm thinking that IF we want (some of) that
>> reclaimed, the powers that be must set this in motion sooner rather
>> than later

> Seizing resources in the name of public interest has such excellent
> historical precedents...

I can't attest to the quality, but there are precedents.

> It seems likely that legacy address holders might see themselves as
> materially harmed by attempts to do so and seek redress. As those  
> blocks
> were not assigned under modern registry service agreements I'm not  
> sure
> that all the possible outcomes of such an exercise are very pretty.

That very much depends on the way the reclamation is going to work.  
The simplest would be "30 days after the passing of this policy all  
legacy class A space is returned to IANA" and I'm pretty sure this  
isn't going to work for a variety of reasons. Another option would be  
that the holders need to sign the current agreement and start paying  
the ARIN fee associated with the amount of address space involved  
(although the current $18000/yr fee is probably not enough to  
overcome inertia). Separately, the RIRs could pass a policy that  
prohibits the trading in (this type of) address space and that this  
will be "enforced" by means of the address space certificate system  
that is being created. With the prospect of making money off of the  
addresses gone, the organizations involved don't have a reason to  
hold on to the space if they're really not using it. And it's likely  
that it's possible to reclaim parts of class A blocks in cases where  
there is some use.

Personally, I don't care all that much: the faster we run out of  
IPv4, the faster we'll all be on IPv6, and the faster some of the  
current legacy issues are out of the way.

But the point is, that IF we want to do this, it has to happen soon,  
or it's another missed opportunity, like reclaiming class E space. If  
we're going to need that space in three years, it's now too late  
because hundreds of millions of hosts out there have class E  
hardcoded as invalid and within such a short time, we can't update  
all of those hosts.