[arin-ppml] The LRSA $100 fee...

[John Curran]

On Aug 29, 2008, at 10:58 AM, Jeremy H. Griffith wrote:
> ...
> As to supporting whois service, I've kept my contact info
> current since 1992.  The beneficiary of this service is *not*
> me; in fact, I tend to suffer for it, since I'm sure it's a
> source of spam.  But the *rest* of the community benefits
> from knowing who to call in case of trouble.  Charging me for
> this "service" seems like a more cynical manipulation than
> I believe ARIN capable of.  I hope.  ;-)

Your service to the community in keeping your contact information
up to date is so noted, and thanks!  With respect to charging you
under the LRSA for this "service", see below.

> That means that for me, the LRSA has no benefit at all.  While
> $100/year isn't that much, it's about what I pay for ten domains
> at the moment.  And ARIN is hardly hurting for income; in an
> earlier thread, the problem was that ARIN wasn't spending fast
> enough and was accumulating more surplus than the IRS allows
> for nonprofits!  So my $100 would make that problem worse...

Okay, to be clear, ARIN's got a surplus today but that's a good
thing.  We've lowered fees 5 times, added new services, and I
know that I'll at least advocate that continue to reduce fees and
increase services to the extent that seems financially prudent.

If one takes a very long term view, it's clear that there will not
be a lot of allocation activity with IPv6 (i.e. folks coming back
for additional blocks ;-) and it's uncertain whether there will be
much IPv6 policy activity.  It's a valid question as to what level
of subscription to registration services is needed when someone
doesn't anticipating putting in their next Internet resource request
within the same decade, and hence what fees should apply.  For
reference (from the online Annual Report), subscription services
fees made up just over 85% of ARIN's total receipts, so any
significant change in the nature of subscription services or fees
could have a significant impact on ARIN's overall finances.

As a result, it seems a good idea of address block holders to pay
a nominal amount to insure that the common registry was maintained
regardless of registration services activity going on an RIR.  I do
not know whether $100 is the right number or not, but setting it to
any lower number today runs the risk that that processing costs with
receiving purchase orders, invoicing, collection begin to offset
receipts significantly.  It's relatively to easy to lower if we get
to that world, and put the same level of automation in place that
the domain folks have, and see that we're over-recovering compared
to operating costs.

/John

(speaking personal views and without
consultation w/fellow Board members)