[arin-ppml] ARIN-prop-172 Additional definition for NRPM Section 2 - Legacy Resources

[Astrodog]

There seems to be a big question here that isn't being acknowledged.
Namely, how strong would a title claim by a legacy holder be in the
first place. A huge risk faced by legacy address holders is the massive
lack of documentation in many cases. A legal fight over what ARIN has to
do also creates a genuine risk of losing the asset entirely if ARIN
elects to argue that the alleged legacy holder has no standing
whatsoever regarding the resources.

Title issues are rarely as clear cut as people would like. In my
industry, often times multiple entities will claim to have title to the
same assets, or there will be little to no documentation as to the title
status either way. In these cases, often times none of the involved
parties wish to resolve the issue through the courts. It tends to be
cheaper for the buyer to simply pay everyone (or walk away from the deal
entirely) and all of the sellers are aware of the substantial risk
involved in having a county judge make a decision with little to no
evidence either way to work from. The process is risky enough for
entities which believe they have very strong evidence.

I do not see a substantial legacy holder risking its assets in this way,
nor do I see a bankruptcy court along with a company's creditors
deciding that they are best served by getting into a legal dispute
wherein the underlying asset may be stripped entirely. These entities
tend to be very, very conservative. Very few creditors, and even fewer
bankruptcy courts would be inclined to take this route, particularly
given the possibility of selling the assets quickly to a qualified buyer
who will not require the court and the creditors to face these issues
for the same or near the same price.

I would be interested to hear people's experiences with the level of
documentation held by legacy holders, in particular, how strong their
claim to resources generally are beyond "We've been using it for a long
time" and "ARIN says so."

--- Harrison