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

[Owen DeLong]

On Feb 12, 2010, at 9:43 AM, 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.
> 
Bill,
	I believe that the US has a public policy tradition that you cannot
own simple words, integers, or other primary language or mathematical
elements. IP addresses and Autonomous system numbers are simple
numbers, so, should be subject to that same tradition.

	If you can explain the ownership or intrinsic value of "4"
to me (not 4 of something or 4 dollars or 4 units, but, 4, four, etc.
itself), perhaps you can make a case that IP numbers have value.
Otherwise, the numbers themselves are not what is being traded,
but, the consent of the community to allow you to use those numbers
expressed as a registration in the RIR system.

	In reality, there is absolutely nothing that stops any cooperating
group of people who own routers from reassigning all of the IPv4
address space on their own terms completely independent of the
RIR system.  The Internet depends on the general cooperation of
the community in enlightened self interest, expressed as the RIR
system. There is no force of law in ARIN policy, nor should there
be.

Owen