[arin-ppml] ARIN-prop-174 Policies Apply to All Resources in the Registry

[Chris Engel]

Again, IANAL,  but I am a bit confused by some of the assertions being made here.  It certainly makes sense to me that if no legal contract exists between ARIN and an entity then ARIN has no authority to assert an obligation on that entity. However, it would also follow that such an entity had no authority to exert an obligation upon ARIN to maintain listings for it or to update those listings per it's request. In my limited understanding if no agreement exists between 2 parties then NEITHER has obligation toward the other, other then that which is codified in law/statute.

Even assuming that an assignment prior to ARIN established some sort of exclusive right to use an address block for an entity, it does not follow that also infers a right to transfer such exclusive right to use to another entity and to do so absent any restrictions. The right to use a resource and the right to transfer that use are not identical. I believe there are a significant number of historical examples of such arrangements. Tenant farming for example, a tenant farmer might have an exclusive right to use a particular parcel of land for farming, but they didn't have the right to transfer the right to use the land to a 3rd party, and certainly not to a 3rd party who wanted to do something other then farming on it.

None of this speaks to what ARIN's policies should be, but it seems pretty clear to me that absent a contract, a court order or a statute ARIN can update it's registries according to whatever policies are adopted which by it.



Christopher Engel