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

[Chris Engel]

> [Milton L Mueller] It's very good that you understand the distinction
> between what ARIN's legal rights are and what good policy would be. Those
> who believe that ARIN should not record legacy transfers need to tell us
> what the policy rationale is. What good does such a refusal do? What harms
> might come of it? That would be an intelligent topic to discuss. If your
> concept of "doing good" means: "I hate those f**ing legacy holders and think
> they should be punished for not playing our 8.3 game" or "I want to punish
> people who make money from IP address trades," I suggest that this is not a
> constructive policy.


My main contention is that if a "needs requirement" is a good/necessary thing for 8.3 transfers for non-legacy blocks then it's also probably a good/necessary thing for legacy blocks as well. Conversely, if waiving a "needs requirement" is a beneficial thing for the interests of the community as a whole in regards transfers of legacy blocks then it probably would be a beneficial thing to waive for transfers of non-legacy blocks as well. I see nothing fundamentally different about the nature of the address blocks themselves that would dictate a difference in the way transfers be handled for them.

In practical terms, organizations may occasionally need to carve out special exceptions to treat certain cases different in order to get sufficient buy in to get a policy passed....just like legislators sometimes find themselves having to make compromises or exceptions for special interests in order to get certain laws passed. However such a practice doesn't necessarly make for good policy or good law. I believe such special exceptions should be avoided if at all possible.



Christopher Engel