[arin-ppml] Q1 - ARIN address transfer policy: why the trigger date?

[Milton L Mueller]

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From: Chris Grundemann [mailto:cgrundemann at gmail.com]


>Leaving morality out of it for the moment, there are contractual
>obligations here (RSA).  Are you suggesting that the contracts signed
>with ARIN do not matter or that they should not matter?

Should not matter. First, a lot of legacy space is outside any RSA. Second, a contract that asks people to do things not in their interest and then provides no enforceable mechanism for ensuring compliance, and isn't enforced for 5-10 years, is not something to get hung up on. Third, returning address space takes time and effort; inertia doesn't take any, so you're asking them to incur expenses for an action that yields them no benefit. Four, "need" is not an objective quantity; they may think they need the addresses until the prospect of economic gains from trade makes them give the sitaution another look. 

>In reality, the only need for a transfer policy seems to be to
>motivate people to do what they should already be doing... 

That's a common, well-known feature of the price system. You can talk until blue in the face about global warming and the need to reduce energy consumption, but isn't it interesting how people didn't really stop buying gas guzzlers until the price of gas doubled. 



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