[arin-ppml] Legacy Space authority (fwd)

[Jimmy Hess]

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
 >>
ARIN clearly has moral obligations to ensure the legacy registrants can 
maintain their registrations.
It's not clear that ARIN has to do this for free in perpetuity, or 
without requiring legacy registrants to
eventually sign the RSA, however.

And _now_  may not be a proper time to force the issue.   I.E.  I think 
for now, ARIN should wait,
and strongly encourage legacy networks to update information and sign a  
Legacy RSA, and nothing more.


I would think that giving the legacy networks the opportunity to 
maintain their registration under the
same terms as other conventional registrants would effectively fulfill 
their obligation to maintain the
services of the legacy registry,  even if the only other option offered 
is "not to be registered".

I.E.  If the legacy registration failed to be maintained, it would be 
solely through the fault of the legacy
network failing to stay in contact with the registry, provide current 
contact information, and follow the rules.


Even if you think IP addresses are intangible property; there is still 
the need to maintain contact,
otherwise the IP space  is abandoned property, to be turned over to the 
state/government,  if the
contact information is invalid, and no contact is made for a sufficient 
duration.

But I believe ARIN doesn't turn over abandoned IP addresses, as  (1) it 
takes the position that IPs aren't
property, and  (2) Being an internet registry doesn't mean you are in 
the care of property.


> As long as the RIR's are still assigning IPv4 people will not
> switch to IPv6.
>   
I'm not sure cessation of IPv4 assignments will cause that many to 
switch to IPv6 who
wouldn't otherwise.


> Once we get rid of the last of the Win98, Win ME, Win 2K,
> and MacOS 9 systems on the Internet - and that date is rushing
> towards us faster and faster every day - then the devices on
> the Internet will be able to support IPv6 - and not using IPv6
> after that date will merely be a choice, not dictated by any
> technical limitation.
>   
Well, the OSes may support IPv6.

This says nothing about the legacy software that may run on these computers.

Just because your OS is new and IPv6-enabled, does not mean, that, for 
example, all
the network-aware software you utilize can work with IPv6.

I'm afraid there will be many sorts of communications software (I.E. 
online game software)
that utilize IPs, and are no longer maintained or won't ever be adapted 
for IPv6.

If the specialized software products are important enough, their users 
will be locked into IPv4.

--
-J