[arin-ppml] Policy Proposal 108: Eliminate the term license in the NRPM

[Joe Maimon]

William Herrin wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 9:46 AM, Member Services<info at arin.net>  wrote:
>> Policy Proposal 108: Eliminate the term license in the NRPM
>
> David.
>
> Unless this proposal was instigated at counsel's request, you may want
> to consider letting sleeping dogs lie. The US has a public policy
> tradition dating back to before there was a US that anything of value
> can and should be ownable and owned by everyday citizens. ARIN
> practice is out of step with that tradition.
>
> You may have heard that there's a high-stakes free pool depletion
> crisis looming on the horizon. Now may not be the best time to reopen
> Pandora's box.
>
> Regards,
> Bill Herrin
>


I vehemently disagree. In this context the value of the numerical exists 
solely due to consensus of uniqueness.

Consensus is not property.

Private property is private. Numbers in abstract cannot be owned. The 
value in allocations lies in the database entry and the general 
willingness of non-contractually bound third parties to adhere to the 
database contents, as a consensus.

Entries in private databases cannot be owned by other private parties 
without grant of ownership. Numbers in use by people on their privately 
owned networks cannot be viewed as private property of any other entity. 
Networks do not have to respect these non-existent property rights.

Making this clear is in the best interest of all.

Tortious interference and any other torturous legal theories may apply, 
but this has always been my understanding of the situation.

Joe