[ppml] [arin-announce] Legacy RSA

[Stephen Sprunk]

Thus spake "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm at ipinc.net>
> Kevin, don't forget ARIN defines legacy holders as IPv4 holders.
> IPve ONLY.  In ARIN's definitions, there is no such thing as an
> "IPv6 Legacy Holder"
...
> My only concern with the "Legacy RSA" is that somewhere within
> it, there is a statement that the term "Legacy holder" means "IPv4
> only holder"  That way there is no chance in the future that some
> court could misinterpret the contract and use it to extend over
> IPv6 assignments.

That's not exactly correct.

A legacy assignment is one made before ARIN's formation.  A "Legacy RSA" 
would logically only apply to legacy assignments.  It happens that only ASNs 
and IPv4 assignments can be legacy; there are no legacy IPv6 assignments or 
allocations.  If a legacy holder also has non-legacy resources, those 
resources would be covered under a standard RSA.

I'm sure ARIN's counsel covered these bases when drafting the Legacy RSA.

> But in the last analysis, the so called "rights of the (IPv4) Legacy
> holders" are only of value as long as the rest of us continue to
> keep routing their legacy traffic - ie: their IPv4 traffic.  Ask
> yourself, what is a reasonable expectation as to how long the
> rest of the Internet will be willing to continue to do this, before
> telling the Legacy holders (and, indeed, ALL IPv4 holders) that
> they must switch to IPv6.  That is the true length of time that
> these so called "rights" will have any actual value.

They will have value as long as ISPs are willing to take money to route 
their traffic.  There is no reason to think ISPs will turn down their money 
in the forseeable future.

S

Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking