[arin-ppml] ARIN releases new version of the Legacy Registration

[bmanning at vacation.karoshi.com]

On Sun, Sep 07, 2008 at 12:56:45PM -0500, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
> John Curran wrote:
> > On Sep 7, 2008, at 12:55 AM, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
> >> Jeremy H. Griffith wrote:
> >>> *  No possibility of return on an involuntary basis.  This was 
> >>> essential to encourage us to do the work that led to the current 
> >>> Internet.
> >>
> >> There was no statement either way about the basis on which addresses 
> >> were assigned
> >
> > Just to be clear, there was such a statement made in 1996 by Jon 
> > Postel (via RFC 2050) that reads "The IANA reserves the right to 
> > invalidate any IP assignments once it is determined the the 
> > requirement for the address space no longer exists."  As the original 
> > IANA, Jon certainly knew what conditions were applicable to existing 
> > IP assignments, even if those who received the assignments did not...
> 
> While a case could certainly be made that such a rule applied to 
> assignments made after the publication of RFC 2050, I don't see how Jon 
> had the legal authority to apply that retroactively.  That he "knew" it 
> did is not binding since the other parties arguably did not.
> 
> S

	As one time member of the IANA team under Jon and the original
head of the reclaimation efforts (we recovered ~30% of the total address pool)
i'd like to clarify what the IANA did to "invalidate any IP assignments once it 
is determined the the requirement for the address space no longer exists."
What we did was:

	) contact the listed resource holder(s)#
	) ask if they were still using the space
	) if so, process any updates they provided
	) if not, markt he space as "fallow" - leaving it usassignable for a period

# in some cases the organization no longer existed, in some cases the contect had died.

	The primary reason for the LRSA, imho, is to ensure that there is an 
understanding between the resource holder(s) and the current registry. I'm all in
favor of retaining the origina terms and conditions, inso far as is feasable/legal
The fact remains that we are temporary users/stewards of the resources and that in
100 years, it is unlikely that either ARIN or any of us will be around to assert rights
under soem previous centurys  half remembered expectations. And given the surprizing 
longevity of IPv4, I think it is prudent to re-sync the understandings btwn registry and
user.

--bill