[arin-ppml] Policy Proposal 2008-6: Emergency TransferPolicyfor IPv4 Addresses - Last Call

[Ron Cleven]

The stupidity of this discussion is breathtaking.  ARIN has yet to even 
begin to change its IPV4 billing policy to make the cost of IPV4 
addresses uniform.  That, in turn, would strongly encourage the large 
ISP's (where much of the momentum for IPV6 transition needs to take 
place) to begin the transition.  At the same time, it would not hurt the 
"little guy", as their costs would change very little, if any.

Instead, ARIN continues IPV4 billing practices that are encouraging the 
entirely WRONG behavior.  Hello?!?!?!?

For those of you who are certain that IPV6 can be a viable and reliable 
alternative to IPV4 in a reasonably short period of time (under the 
right conditions and incentives), I challenge you to get together and 
come up with a transition timeframe that all of you (and ARIN) are 
willing to sign onto as being realistic.  Then work towards that goal 
with serious financial incentives aimed squarely at the large ISP's.

If that timeframe is not within the IPV4 runout window, then ARIN has 
not been doing its job.  It should have been ratcheting up IPV4 billing 
(leveling the per-ip pricing) to force such a change BEFORE calamity 
strikes.  I am stunned at the number of people on this list who are 
complacent about the runout eventuality.

If that timeframe is still within the IPV4 runout window, then great, 
the world may not end at that time, and ARIN, et al, still have time to 
institute coherent policies to make it happen in an ORDERLY fashion.

To keep it very simple, if you assert that IPV6 is the answer, be 
willing to put your money where your mouth is.  We should be able to 
establish a date in the not-too-distant future where renewal costs for 
large IPV4 allocations start to become prohibitively expensive.  It 
would be really nice if everyone was pulling towards the same reasonable 
goal.




Boss: How is that new inventory management system coming?

Programmer: Great, we finished coding it, and it seems to work.

Boss: So, when will we be ready to do some alpha/beta testing of the UI, 
stress testing, and parallel testing?

Programmer: Oh, I don't see any need to do that.

Boss: Wha?????

Programmer: Our license for the old software expires at the end of the 
month, so we have to switch to the new system then.  No point in 
worrying about it until then.  It is inevitable, man.