[arin-ppml] ARIN-2012-3: ASN Transfers - Last Call

[Michael Sinatra]

On 5/3/12 1:08 PM, Jeffrey Lyon wrote:

> What i'm attempting to argue is that this does not have to be a zero
> sum game. Just because this policy could benefit the management, bean
> counters, and marketing gurus of any given commercial enterprise does
> not mean that stewardship has been abandoned, that ARIN is becoming
> commercialized, or that we're somehow setting a bad precedent. Many
> could benefit substantially from the transferability of ASN's, its
> just unfortunately that the ultimate decision to strike down this
> proposal are not the same group of folks.
> 
> Reiterating my position of "Strongly Support,"

When I vote in ARIN elections, I vote for people who understand and can
represent viewpoints other than their own.  They can go beyond their
experiences and self-interest and understand the larger needs of the
community.  It's the different between leadership and simple
representation.  I'll note that many AC members that I have spoken to
support this policy despite the fact that it is not in their narrow
interest to do so.

Regarding the statement about PPML being predominantly engineers, I take
issue with the idea that engineers can't understand business or
marketing concepts.  Not only do engineers need to worry about
destabilizing this important thing we are responsible for (i.e. the
Internet), we have to understand the business, economic, and political
aspects of everything we do.  We need to understand the nexus of
technology and policy.  That's why we follow PPML.  (Moreover, PPML is
not only engineers--there are business people here, LE, etc.)

Although the larger community has asked many times for use cases for
this policy, the very best we have come up with is to have numbers we
can remember.  That and the bankruptcy issue (which I agree is compelling).

The truth is, we really don't know what kind of negative effects we are
creating when we allow for this monetization of a number that has never
been of value in the past.  No other RIR is currently entertaining such
a transfer policy, so we have no experience to go on.  This is similar
to the excellent points that Heather Schiller made at ARIN 29.  Given
that we don't know the effects of a wide-open ASN transfer policy, I
agree with Christoph that we should define the scope of the policy
narrowly, to encompass the one use case we can find.

I am opposed to the policy as written, re-iterating my already-counted
vote at ARIN 29.

michael