[arin-ppml] An article of interest to the community....

[John Curran]

On Aug 29, 2011, at 11:19 AM, Mike Burns wrote:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/08/the-case-for-a-free-market-in-ipv4-addresses.ars

Mike -

  I also responded to Tim Lee's article in Ars Technica -

The most interesting part about this "article" is that Timothy Lee wrote it without speaking with us at ARIN (despite mentioning ARIN 18 times in the article...) I'll try to be brief in corrections:

First, ARIN doesn't "resist" a market in IP addresses. ARIN implements the policies developed by the Internet community in the region - anyone can participate in the process via mailing list and online remote participation at no cost. So, if you don't like the policies, it's best to go to www.arin.net/participate<http://www.arin.net/participate> and make yourself heard. In the case of being able to monetize IP addresses, ARIN has actually adopted policies which allow exactly that: via the Specified Transfer policy, a party may transfer addresses it doesn't need to a party which does need them. This policy was developed by the community and adopted so that little used IP address blocks won't remain unused, but will instead be put to productive use. If you go to ARIN's website (www.arin.net<http://www.arin.net/>), you will see buttons that say "Got IPv4 Addresses?", "Need More IPv4 Addresses?", and "Facilitating an IPv4 Transfer?" ARIN is doing everything possible to make the transfer process easy.

Second, the suggestion that "they're free to transfer them to whomever they choose, regardless of a needs assessment by ARIN" disregards the fact that a needs-assessment was performed, and that the actual sale order that was approved by the judge was actually modified to reflect ARIN's role as the registry and to require an agreement with ARIN.

ARIN doesn't support or oppose a "open" market; it simply executes the community-developed policies. As such, we cannot set aside the policy of requiring actual need to receive addresses than we can any other policy.

If you happen to be nascent speculator to the IPv4 address market, the requirement to actually needing the addresses for network infrastructure may seem unfair, but it is what the community decided. The requirement that network operators must need address space in order to receive it actually quite similar to how IPv4 address space has been handed out for decades, and Internet service providers are quite familiar with the process of qualifying to receive it.

Tim - If you actually want an interview for your next foray into this area, feel free to contact me:jcurran at arin.net<mailto:jcurran at arin.net> (alternatively, just ask Iljitsch; he knows what he's talking about here... :-)

FYI,
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
ARIN


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