[ppml] Posting of Legacy RSA and FAQ

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

> ARIN has also not yet provided the documents and 
> correspondence relevant to its formation that establish the 
> agreements and the terms it understood and undertook. 

ARIN has always published its charter and by-laws. As I understand it,
this is the sum total of the obligations and undertakings that a new
corporation has under U.S. law. Remember that ARIN was not created by
legislation and was not created by any sort of regulatory agency.

I know that a lot of people had a lot of discussions around the time of
ARIN's formation. Some of those discussions happened at NANOG, some at
the DOC, some even at the Whitehouse, believe it or not. I personally
solicited some U.S.-based ISPs to send letters of support for ARIN's
formation to the part of the Whitehouse that Ira Magaziner was
associated with. But in the end, unless ARIN's officers signed some sort
of contract, any agreements that anybody thought were made, are now just
dust. A lot of possible scenarios were discussed and some people may
have misunderstood what was a commitment and what was merely analysis or
blue-sky thinking.

What is the point of rehashing this now? ARIN has squarely made its mark
as a bottom-up decision-making organization in which stakeholders in IP
address allocation meet to make their own rules and regulations. No
government help is needed, nor is any government interference desired.

> Through some offlist discussion, it was pointed out that IPv4 
> registration services will eventually transition to a 'low 
> volume of changes' mode, suitable for nearly automated 
> operation.

I don't recall anyone mentioning suitability for automated operation.
Getting one complex application per month would be low-volume but would
be entirely unsuitable for automation. In any case, the key thing here
is that this change would be caused by a nearly 100% transition to IPv6.
Legacy ISPs will never, ever have any experience useful to ARIN since
"legacy" by definition, is purely IPv4-based. By the time ARIN is mostly
dealing with IPv6 activity, IPv4 ISPs will be relegated to a market
share similar to that now enjoyed by the BBS business.

--Michael Dillon