[arin-ppml] Draft Policy 2012-3: ASN Transfers

[Tom Vest]

On Mar 23, 2012, at 8:26 PM, Matthew Kaufman wrote:

> On 3/16/2012 2:23 PM, Tom Vest wrote:
>> The knowledge that route (a) was originated by AS (x) is only meaningful insofar as one has some set of high-confidence beliefs/expectations about AS (x). However, if AS (x) can change hands at will, henceforth no such confidence will be possible for the overwhelming majority if not all ASes.
> 
> I would point out that this fact is *already* true, as ASNs are transferred through merger and acquisition all the time, and have been for over a decade.
> 
> I don't see anyone proposing a policy where an entity is required to return (and have permanently marked as unavailable) their ASN when ownership changes... I see, for instance, that AS 1 and AS 701 are still out there, despite the above happening several times, and yet nothing terrible has happened as a result.
> 
> Matthew Kaufman

For the record, neither have I -- nor would I advocate such a wasteful arrangement. 
But your comment seems to be completely orthogonal to the statement quoted above.

Unless you're saying that at some point in time you were unsure who the owner/operators of AS1 and/or AS701 were...?

TV