[arin-ppml] Policy Proposal: IPv4 Recovery Fund

[Kevin Kargel]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Milton L Mueller [mailto:mueller at syr.edu]
> Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 12:23 PM
> To: Kevin Kargel; arin-ppml at arin.net
> Subject: RE: [arin-ppml] Policy Proposal: IPv4 Recovery Fund
> 
> 
> Kevin Kargel:
> >
> > Why are so many people working so hard to make IP as expensive as
> > possible?
> 
> The fallacy which you repeat again and again is that allowing market
> transfers of ipv4 makes ipv4 addresses "more expensive." It does not.
> What makes ipv4 addresses expensive is their scarcity (i.e., the
> existence of more demand for them than supply). The price merely
> reflects the level of scarcity. Even if there are no visible prices
and
> no organized transfer mechanisms, ipv4 addresses will become "more
> expensive" in the sense of "harder to get." More resources will have
to
> be expended by ISPs and anyone else to get them. If the transfer
> processes are poorly organized, nontransparent and based on subjective
> criteria --THAT is what will make ipv4 addresses more expensive. If
> there is no economic incentive to return things to availability, THAT
> will make ipv4 addresses more expensive (harder to get).
> 
> Milton Mueller
> Professor, Syracuse University School of Information Studies
> XS4All Professor, Delft University of Technology
> ------------------------------
> Internet Governance Project:
> http://internetgovernance.org

[Kevin says:] You are operating under some false assumptions..  "Harder
to get" does not necessarily equate to more expensive.. that only
applies in an artificial market such as you are promoting.  ARIN can
continue to allocate IPv4 space at the same cost as it does now until
and beyond runout.  After runout of course they will only be able to
allocate what space is returned, but you can't say you didn't see this
coming.  I have my IPv6 allocation, do you have yours?

It is time to stop relying on the old technology and start working
toward the new.  Insistence on dragging IPv4 out to the last gasp does
nothing more than delay evolution to IPv6.