[arin-ppml] Audits

[William Herrin]

On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 5:06 PM, Matthew Petach <mpetach at netflight.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 1:20 PM, William Herrin <bill at herrin.us> wrote:
>> On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 4:02 PM, Matthew Petach <mpetach at netflight.com> wrote:
>>> isn't recovering unused space
>>> a trivial matter of looking to see who hasn't paid their annual fees?
>>
>> Space allocated prior to ARIN's existence, so-called "legacy space,"
>> falls into a status quo of sorts where ARIN keeps the
>> registrations as they were and doesn't touch them to the maximum
>> extent practical
>
> Ah.  So this is *only* about fraud/abuse in non-RSA/non-LRSA
> legacy-holder space, which ARIN has no real rights over anyhow.

Hi Matthew,

Not entirely, no. There's also a problem of underutilization and
improper utilization of resources by post-1997 registrants. The
canonical example is the bankrupt company that is no longer using the
addresses at all but continues paying the annual fee.

However, it is primarily an issue with the legacy-holder space, yes.


> Thanks for the clarification.  This is really a disguised "eminent domain"
> issue, then, where the community votes to have ARIN act as the
> "government" to seize back assets from private use that it deems
> are necessary to be used in a different manner for the public good.

Why surely it can't be an eminent domain issue; eminent domain applies
to real property and IP addresses aren't property. ;-)

Seriously though, that's exactly what it is: an eminent domain-like issue.


> Is there a third scenario or model for what's being proposed that
> I'm missing?

A. ARIN could assert dominion over "abandoned" registrations,
following procedures comparable to what the government follows for
abandoned property. Announce the search for registrants. Put ads in
the right places. Any registrant who doesn't step forward is canceled.

Assuming ARIN is reasonably vocal, waits long enough and doesn't
require too high a standard of proof just to to retain the
registration as-is, who's going to legally contest it later after not
bothering to make any indication that they still use and still want a
particular block of addresses?

Besides, if the original registration so many years ago implied
nothing else, it surely implied a duty to keep contact information up
to date for so long as the registration was desired.


B. ARIN could assert dominion over legacy registrations period. Sign
the LRSA by the first or you're out. Legally challenging based solely
on ARIN's relationship with ICANN, but likely doable with legislative
support from the national governments in ARIN's territory.

If ARIN wants to dip into the shark-infested waters of seeking new
law. Which I'm very sure we don't. No amount of recovery in the legacy
space could justify giving the Congress a foothold into our business.

Regards,
Bill Herrin


-- 
William D. Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/>
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