[arin-ppml] incentives are better than penalties

[Benson Schliesser]

On 29 Jul 2010, at 7:22 PM, Joe Maimon wrote:

> I am opposed to reclamation techniques that step up the confrontational and adversarial relationship between ARIN and address holders, even were it to be essential for continued consumption of IPv4 and IPv6 did not exist. I view increasing auditing and mandatory triggers of audits with similar concern.
> 
> Expending good will and buy in, not to mention financial resources, all for relatively limited return along with greater risks of legal and political liabilities is not a good bargain.
> 
> Bad cop is not a character role an organization like ARIN should choose to be identified with.
> 
> Incentives for efficiencies, that is where my support lands. Even then,  I prefer less direct incentives, those that can be spread and carried by the invisible hand.

Amen.

As ARIN participants we all represent two perspectives that may be at odds: the success of our organizations, and the ongoing function of the Internet.  The best way to achieve goals associated with the latter, is to create policy that simultaneously encourages the former.

More specifically, we must recognize that the audit and renumbering of existing IP allocations consumes resources.  Few member organizations are motivated to spend money on returning address space, because there is no ROI.  Creating policy that artificially penalizes organizations for the status quo (i.e. "stick") will only encourage the minimal response to avoid trouble, and may encourage deceit.  On the other hand, policy that motivates efficiency (i.e. "carrot") by assigning real value to number resources will encourage cooperation and inherently encourages organizations to make excess resources available.  A secondary benefit is that the differential in cost of plentiful IPv6 and scarce IPv4 will encourage faster take-up of IPv6.

The only organizations that don't benefit in this "carrot" approach are those that demand IPv4 addresses at essentially no cost.  ARIN and other RIRs should find a way to enable the subset of these organizations that exist for the benefit of the public.  The rest probably represent untenable enterprises, and can learn to accept reality.

I welcome anybody interested in collaborating on draft policy that embodies the "carrot" approach to contact me directly.

Cheers,
-Benson