[ppml] Policy Proposal 2008-2: IPv4 Transfer Policy Proposal

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

> There are a few different ways to deal with this, in addition 
> to the proposed transfer policy's conditions or a 
> transferee-restrictions-only system.  For example, we might 
> ask ARIN to monitor market prices, and allow as many bits of 
> deaggregation (on transferor pre-qualifications) as needed to 
> keep supply and demand in balance across the range of address sizes...

If ARIN does decide to monitor this particular derivatives market
and take actions to regulate that market, are there any implications
of that within the law? For instance, would ARIN have to be licenced
or registered with the SEC?

It would be interesting to hear from someone with financial markets
expertise to see what is the likelihood that these IP address blocks
would be considered to be some kind of exotic equity derivative. After
all, if IP address blocks are being bought and sold, they have an 
equity value and the contracts that are sold would be equity
derivatives.
And since holders of these contracts can profit by selling them, then
they are securities and therefore under the regulatory gaze of the SEC.

--Michael Dillon