[arin-ppml] Policy Proposal 2008-4 - Staff Assessment

[Stephen Sprunk]

David Kessens wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 09, 2008 at 12:21:21PM -0700, Owen DeLong wrote:
>   
>> The same problem applies to Michael's much more elaborate effort at the same statement.
>>     
>
> Correct. Attempts to define special areas are bound to be wrong, complicated or unfair. That is why I don't support policies for special geographical areas.
>
> Let's have a minimum allocation boundary that works for everybody in the ARIN region (or better yet all RIRs) and be done with this.
>   

I'm all for fairness, but one must recognize that our Caribbean members 
operate in a rather different legal and economic environment than our US 
and Canadian members and thus different policy is, at times, justified 
to account for those differences.  With all due respect to folks there, 
they simply aren't big or numerous enough for this proposal to have any 
meaningful impact on the global routing table even in the case of 
widespread abuse, unlike the US and Canada.  Being supportive to our 
less fortunate neighbors is worth the minimal risk, IMHO.

If folks from other small island countries and territories in ARIN's 
region request special status, as folks in the Caribbean have, then I 
would support adding them to the list.  Since that has not happened, 
AFAICT, I do not find the simple act of failing to include them 
sufficient grounds to oppose this proposal.

S