[arin-ppml] Draft Policy 2009-1: Transfer Policy - Revised andforwarded to the Board

[Kevin Kargel]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen Sprunk [mailto:stephen at sprunk.org]
> Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 1:11 PM
> To: Kevin Kargel
> Cc: ARIN PPML
> Subject: Re: [arin-ppml] Draft Policy 2009-1: Transfer Policy - Revised
> andforwarded to the Board
> 
> Kevin Kargel wrote:
> > I believe the proof of what I am talking about is all of the unused IPv4
> space that is not being returned so that it can be held as a speculative
> > commodity.  Inaction in itself is a proof.
> >
> 
> You are assigning a motive without proof.  Yes, there is a lot of space
> out there that could be returned and hasn't been.  I believe that in the
> vast majority of cases it is abandoned, forgotten, or is being used
> inefficiently and there is insufficient motivation to renumber.  I have
> seen all of these cases in the wild many, many times; I have _never_
> been told "we won't return that space because we're hoping to sell it
> one day."
> 
> My motivation for supporting liberalized transfers is to apply a
> financial incentive to correct all of the problems above that I _have_
> seen.  If companies hear that they can get money for giving up space,
> many (but not all) of them are going to do an inventory and find out
> what they have but don't actually need so that they can cash in.  Would
> I prefer altruistic motivation?  Certainly.  We've been trying that for
> a couple of decades now, and it has resulted in a few returns, but
> nowhere near as many as I'd hoped -- or as many as the community will
> need in a few years.  It's time to quit pretending that altruism is
> sufficient.
> 
> S
> 
> --
> Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein
> CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
> K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

I appreciate your motivations for a liberalized transfer policy (which is a
nice sounding euphemism for an IP commodities market). If that were as far
as it went I would be all for it. The problem is that there is a bigger
picture that includes inviting government control and taxation of what will
now be a market valued commodity.

Placing a monetary value on IP addresses invites (several independent
governments) to regulate them.  When that happens (several independent
governments) will tax their value.  Soon after that (several independent
governments) will administrate them.  The liberalized transfer policy will
actually hasten what we are hoping to avoid.  

Neither is it good to join the criminals because they are doing things you
can't.  

The system we have been running for a couple of decades now is actually
working.  Use this very email as a proof if you will.

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/x-pkcs7-signature
Size: 3224 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.arin.net/pipermail/arin-ppml/attachments/20090508/e8189066/attachment.bin>