[arin-ppml] Future pressures on the ARIN policy process (Was: Use of "reserved" address space)

[William Herrin]

On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 1:39 PM, Keith W. Hare <Keith at jcc.com> wrote:
>> 1736 votes maximum needed to to replace the board @ $500 each would
>> cost $868k if ARIN didn't tie membership to orgs directly holding
>> resources.
>
> Your math does not hold up. For every additional voting
> organization, the number to achieve a majority increases
> by an average of .5.

Hi Keith,

I stand corrected. Max 3471 votes @ $500 each. Much less in reality
since eligible voters > voters who vote.


>> Annual dollar value of favorable policy to the transit-free ISPs in
>> the ARIN region: unknown but surely growing more significant with v4
>> address exhaustion.
>
> I'm skeptical that it is possible to construct a policy that
> would vastly favor one group of ARIN participants without
> greatly impacting another group of ARIN participants.

That's the point. Hand-pick the board and you can ram through nearly
anything you want, even if it has a significant downside for ARIN
participants who aren't you. There are some limits in place, but
little that isn't readily skirted with a simple majority vote of board
members. Certainly nothing of the "checks and balances" variety built
down in the portions of ARIN's structure that are immutable.

Things like the board members not drafting policies... the board can
change that with a simple majority vote.

I'm also not entirely sure how ARIN went about changing "those who pay
$500 are eligible to vote" to "those who pay and hold resources." Was
voting eligibility also decided with a vote of the board? If a process
can change it one way, the same process can change it another.

I don't mean to suggest that any of this would happen... I merely
suggest that the obstacles are more political than structural. Given
sufficient motivation it wouldn't be altogether hard to form a cabal.

Regards,
Bill Herrin


-- 
William D. Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/>
Falls Church, VA 22042-3004