[arin-ppml] IP Address Policy

[Steven Ryerse]

Jimmy I agree with almost every word you wrote.  I am also a CEO and am bound by the same fiduciary responsibilities.  But and this is a big BUT,  they absolutely do have the power and they have the responsibility to fix a policy that is negatively affecting the customers they serve, if that policy is contrary to their mission.  They do not need anyone else's permission to fix a bad or broken policy however well-intentioned it was - they can solicit input but they are not required to do so.  This is especially true since they are a defacto monopoly and are a special organization chartered to serve the Internet community.  When they say no to a request there isn't another IANA charted source an organization can go to for North America internet resources.  That puts them in a special category and I hope they will work to resolve this issue for us and others.  

Steven L Ryerse
President
100 Ashford Center North, Suite 110, Atlanta, GA  30338
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-----Original Message-----
From: Jimmy Hess [mailto:mysidia at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2012 11:58 PM
To: Steven Ryerse
Cc: McTim; John Curran; ARIN PPML (ppml at arin.net) (ppml at arin.net)
Subject: Re: [arin-ppml] IP Address Policy

On 8/8/12, Steven Ryerse <SRyerse at eclipse-networks.com> wrote:
> fact that the CEO & Board of Directors tries to listen to the 
> community is of course positive but they have absolutely no legal requirement to do so.
So you say, but it would be incorrect.

> They are a US corporation of whatever flavor and as such are actually 
> bound by the corporate laws of the United States.  The CEO and board 
> have a
There are certain  US laws ARIN have to follow, with regards to their activities in the US.
There are certain rights that ARIN has due to being a person in the US.

There are certain global policies and other policies and RFCs that ARIN has to adhere to.

Not all rules ARIN must adhere to are necessarily "legally" imposed requirements; they may be restricted from certain actions for technical reasons, or specifications not existing, for example,  allocating IPs from Class E space.

> fiduciary responsibility just like any corporation.  It is their duty 
> to honor that responsibility or they should not hold office.  If there 
> are

Those people have fiduciary responsibilities, but one of those fiduciary responsibilities is to implement consensus-established policies,  follow their bylaws, and do what they are telling their members that they are doing.

It could be a fiduciary breach to tell the ARIN membership that they implement this particular consensus-driven policy  and then fail to do so in practice when pressed about it.

The ARIN staff are not empowered to arbitrarily bypass policy,  based on merely an applicant's opinion about the policy's appropriateness.

> It is pretty clear to me that they are doing the opposite of their 
> mission in this instance.  It does not destroy any trust if they do 
> what they are

Their mission says "Applying the principles of stewardship, ARIN, a nonprofit corporation, allocates Internet Protocol resources; develops consensus-based policies; and facilitates the advancement of the Internet through information and educational outreach."

So in this instance, they are applying principles of stewarship (resource conservation), and implementation of  the consensus-based policy that was put in place.


You are free to disagree with the policy,  and propose changes, to be made in the future, or look for other options available under the policy.

As you pointed out,  the CEO has fiduciary responsibilities.
Therefore the CEO is not really free to simply bypass the established policy  based on an opinion  that it is denying an otherwise reasonable request.

> Upstream does not meet our competitive needs.  If this community does 
> not

There's nothing in the ARIN mission statement, Global policies, or RFCs that ARIN follows which discusses ensuring applicants meet their competitive needs.

--
-JH