[ppml] Counsel statement on Legacy assignments?

[Cliff Bedore]

I originally sent this to John Curran directly but after reading more
comments, I thought I'd post it to the group


As a legacy holder who has recently joined the PPML list, I can see certain
advantages to joining ARIN.  I'm just not sure of the best way to keep my
network number safe if I join.  I have a Class C (/24) and use it actively but
don't use 50% of the numbers at the current time.  If ARIN were to have an RSA
that lets us join, pay our $100.00 per year and leave us alone with our
networks, I'd be happy to join.  Do I want to pay $100.00 per year?  No but it
won't break my small consulting firm and it's probably a good thing to do.  I
tend to be suspicious of groups that say "We're from the governmet and we're
here to help you"  I have never seen a government/quasi-government group shrink
or give up any power/control except at the point of a gun and I expect most
legacy users feel the same way.  I expect most are willing to take their chances
by maintaining their "legacy" status of being grandfathered into ARIN's
in-addr-ARPA service unless there is a very strong specific RSA protecting their
status quo.  This is not to say that if they need more resources, they should
have free rein to get them.  People keep working around this but all proposals
seem to have more stick than carrot.
 
It would seem to me that the ARIN leadership needs to look at the way to get
people to join.  There seems to be no concensus on the list about how to do
this but if ARIN's goal is to get people to join, they need to take a
pro-active stance to get it done.  The choices seem to be to leave the legacy
owners alone and codify their right to ARIN in-addr service or take strong
action to make them default members of ARIN by whatever means necessary. This
could go to the point of offering free membership and guarantees of safe harbor
for existing numbers with limited other benefits (maybe no voting etc) and
then allow full membership for a nominal fee.
 
As others have stated, this is a v4 problem only and will disappear when v6
takes over.  I think it is to ARIN's advantage as the numbers get tight toward
the end to have as many as possible legacy folks under the ARIN/other RIRs
umbrella.  The problems of hijacked legacy numbers will only cost ARIN more
time and money for lawyers and dispute resolution and I think any action that
ARIN takes to get legacy users under ARIN should be taken.  This
would/should/could include free limited membership and any other incentives
needed.  Is it fair to the newcomers?  In some ways probably not but if they
have to pay increased fees to cover the costs of dispute resolution because
the legacy users have not joined, they won't be happy about that either.
 
I look at this somewhat like Ford's pardon of Nixon.  Was it "fair" for Nixon
to walk?  No but it was better for the country to get past the embarrassment
and back to more important things.  ARIN's board needs to decide what is
really important and take the appropriate action to achieve that.
 
Food for thought
 
Cliff
 

-- 
Cliff Bedore
7403 Radcliffe Dr. College Park MD 20740
cliffb at cjbsys.bdb.com http://www.bdb.com
Amateur Radio Call Sign W3CB For info on ham radio, http://www.arrl.org/