[arin-ppml] Policy Proposal 2008-6: Emergency TransferPolicyfor IPv4 Addresses - Last Call

[Craig Finseth]

   Kevin Kargel wrote:

   > This still does not obviate the fact that the effect of any
   > peer-peer transfer policy will be to create an artificial
   > commodity market for IP addresses, remove recyclable IP addresses
   > from the fair-chase realm and will force everyone to pay every
   > penny the market will bear for an IP address.
   >   

   So you'd prefer a world where IP(v4) addresses can't be had at _any_ 
   price because there is no incentive for those with excess space to 
   return any?

IMHO, there will be very few people willing to sell addresses to me at
a rate that I can afford, given that there are much larger players who
are willing to pay more to keep me out of the market.

   > I know this will bring vicious flames from those wanting to make
   > profits trading IP addresses,

   Many, many folks have an entirely different motive: freeing up address 
   space that _other_ people currently hold.  I have no profit interest in 
   address markets; I just want to make sure that, if someone wants 
   addresses badly enough, they are able to get them.  I do not feel that, 
   without incentive, the people who have them currently will be willing to 
   part with them -- and what legal authority ARIN has to forcibly take 
   them (to give to others) is, for now at least, unclear.

Personally, I think that a transfer policy will achieve the goal of
enabling hoarders: in other words, they will go to the people who can
pay more for them than to the people who will use them.

And the people who can pay more for them are the larger players, and
this will give them a _dis_incentive to go to IPv6.

   > but I honestly do not believe it would be good for the community.
   >   

   Do you really think complete IPv4 exhaustion is better for the 
   community?  Or a widespread black market of address sales that _aren't_ 
   registered with ARIN?  Those are the only two other options and, as much 
   as I dislike the idea of an address market, I believe it to be less bad 
   than the alternatives.

The black market exists on a small scale, but I don't see the larger
players participating.  For example, I don't see major US ISPs buying
addresses on the black market.

Craig