[arin-ppml] Microsoft receives court approval for transfer as agreed with ARIN

[Michel Py]

John,

>> Michel Py wrote:
>> A precedent has been created. A court of law has ruled that legacy
>> prefixes were sellable assets (at least, in a bankruptcy context).
>> Unless ARIN plans to appeal the ruling (seems difficult to me), it is
>> necessary to implement new policies that take the new reality into
>> account.

> John Curran wrote:
> Actually, ARIN's policies are quite fine with respect to the
> ruling (as the asset sale agreement was modified per our request).

I think everyone should recognize your leadership in getting that part
done given the time and other practical constraints (I certainly am) but
I also think that you have failed to convince that this was done without
taking some artistic license. Your persistence on this topic is costing
you credibility; your job description is not about being perfect, it's
about doing what has to be done.

I am not here to embarrass or try to expose shortcomings. This is water
has gone under the bridge. And although I have opposed ARIN staff
directly writing policies, I would suggest that your role does indeed
include finding the appropriate wording to convey that some policies
could be revised to avoid future problems.


> That is likely to vary significantly by legacy holders,
> so we need to hear from them on this matter.

I think you are missing the point here. I know a few legacy holders, and
just the fact of acknowledging ARIN's existence is a problem for them.
I'm writing this with one of your other postings in mind, so read below.


> Can we actually have *any* multi-stakeholder, private sector led,
> bottom-up policy development system for technical coordination of
> identifiers at the same time as we have parties presently that:
> 1) have no existing contractual requirements to participate in the
> system, but 2) presently hold number resources in their belief as
> personal property?

This is the challenge at hand, indeed. However, I wish you have not
presented this on the form of a question. If you doubt it can be done,
you set yourself up for failure. In your mouth, I accept nothing short
of cheering the troops before the battle, for total victory. Please come
to your senses; nothing has killed more soldiers than the general
publicly doubting that victory can be achieved.

Please give my last paragraph some thought.

Michel.