[arin-ppml] ARIN-prop-170 Transfer of Number Resources in case Bankruptcy

Thu May 10 19:58:07 EDT 2012

To All,

It's my belief that IP numbers should be treated in the same fashion as AS 
Numbers when conveying it/them to a different company.

When speaking of this, we should make a distinction between Companies and 
Organizations as to not confuse some commercial (or even non-commercial such 
as a non-profit entity) operational entity with an ARIN "ORG" 
identification. So please let me say company or entity instead of 
organization unless I mean to refer to an ARIN "ORG" ID.

With regard to bankruptcy, insolvency, foreclosure, or even a government 
seizure of an entity's "assets" we must guard the sovereignty of the 
ARIN-issued ASN's and IP allocations so they do not inadvertently become a 
bargaining chip--- so to speak, or a sellable, or bankable monetary asset of 
the company or entity that is in trouble.

It is true that an ASN or an IP allocation facilitates a company / entity in 
providing services for its customers, subscribers, and even itself. However, 
the real assets of such a company is its customer base or network layout 
that allows them to do business. In the event of a non-profit entity such as 
some university, hospital, municipality, or even a worship entity, the real 
assets are again the services being provided or being had via Internet 
connectivity and routing.

ASN's and IP allocations are Internet resources, parts of the actual 
Internet that a company or entity is granted usage of, to facilitate the 
transportation of their data, customers' and peers' data over the Internet

At the risk of repeating myself, both (ASN's and IP allocations) ``in use by 
any such company or entity`` who has fallen in hot water financially or with 
the government to the extent where their real assets are subject to seizure, 
foreclosure, auction, or receivership should be pulled back by ARIN and held 
or safeguarded so they cannot become globed in, and construed as a tangible 
or sellable asset of the troubled entity along with their bank accounts, 
customer base, desks, pencils and paperclips.

I've read much about the spirit of stewardship, and I believe that such as 
pull-back and safeguard of ASN's and IP allocations in those kinds of 
troubled situations, would be a prime example of stewardship, thus ruarding 
the resources and protecting the very Internet itself.

As I have mentioned in another list posting, I'd surely recommend that ARIN 
examine the situation where ASN's or IP allocations are pulled back into 
their safe haven, and allow for the continued Internet routing and 
propagation of such "safe haven" ASN's or IP allocations to: 1.) not cause 
further devaluation to the endangered entity by disconnection of its 
subscriber base;  2.) assist in the non-disruption of IP services of the 
endangered company's end user customer, hence the general public; 3.) 
protect the physical integrity of such "safe haven"ASN's or IP allocations 
in the event the troubled entity successfully pulls itself out of its 
troubled condition; 4.) make administrative judgments of the ASN's or 
allocation's should the troubled company go to the point of liquidation. (2 
and 3 being of a higher ethical importance)

Comment: if the endangered entity becomes bought out by another, then 
regular transfer of resources procedures should apply.

Rationale: During many instances where a company or entity is undergoing a 
potential meltdown, tear apart, investigation, foreclosure, etc., (which 
they might successfully recover from) their physical structure including 
their real assets often become shredded to piecemeal with bits and pieces 
falling under temporary or permanent control of unknown persons, entities, 
receivers, and impoundments--- potentially located in unforeseeable parts of 
the world. Even in situations where the troubled entity pulls through in 
good condition, many of their real assets and physical structure may have 
been devastated, squandered, and scattered, taking untold time to put back 
in place, with some not even recoverable.

I as one person would want to prevent the sovereign structure of the 
Internet from becoming wrapped up, impounded, or otherwise globed in with 
such an entity's physical assets, subject to the happenings in the prior 
paragraph.

Should the applicable company or entity ultimately fail to pull out of their 
trouble and go down the drain, break up or be liquidated then it would be at 
ARIN's discretion to reassign or reallocate the subject ASN's or IP 
allocations (to the entity(ies) who picked up the pieces of the liquidated 
company-- or not, depending on their administrative evaluation)

I'm mostly referring to situations that may happen to members of the 
big-block fellows and not some micro-allocation, but if such a practice of a 
"safe haven" was utilized, there's no reason it couldn't be applied to a 
tiny micro-dot sized company's assignments or allocations.

Conditions: In situations where ARIN would take back for guardianship or 
safe-keeping of the Internet components and allow the continued routing and 
propagation of said, this would not be expected of ARIN for free. Though I 
couldn't begin to construct a fee structure for all possible scenarios, I 
simply say that it should not be for free. For this kind of failsafe 
protection to work well, I'd believe that upon accepting any resources or 
annually paying for the resources, the holder may need to sign of on a 
simple stipulation that of the holder went into bankruptcy, foreclosure, 
insolvency, etc, that the resources would remand to an ARIN safe haven for 
the protection of said resources.

Closing Comment: In my opinion, often worth a cup of cold coffee, this 
"stewardship" of the Internet's functional structure is not only the 
responsibility of ARIN and the other RIR's, but also extends to the entities 
having ASN's and IP allocations. However, the spirit of Internet stewardship 
will always be a hard sell to extend all the way to an individual end user 
even though he/she is a part of the Internet.

I'd be glad to see my phrase "safe haven" or even "safe harbor" for Internet 
structural components be utilized. It's not actually the bankrupt company or 
the impounded entity being protected, it's the Internet resources themselves 
IP's and ASN's would be harbored in safety during a corporate battle or 
financial storm.

Please take my opinions open mindedly as I have taken into consideration 
various outcomes for a failing or bankrupt entity holding pieces of the 
Internet's structure known as Resources.

Is there anyone interested in creating a comprehensive proposal with me for 
a Resources Safe Haven/Harbor in special circumstances?

With all respect,
Drake Pallister

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Blecker, Christoph" <christoph.blecker at ubc.ca>
To: <arin-ppml at arin.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 4:40 PM
Subject: Re: [arin-ppml] ARIN-prop-170 Transfer of Number Resources in case 
of Bankruptcy

> Just a few comments as the originator:
> My purpose for writing this (it's my first formal proposal, so please be 
> kind!) was to solve one of the issues that ARIN Counsel spoke about at 
> ARIN XXIX surrounding draft policy ARIN-2012-3.
>
> I actually share some of the concerns brought up by other community 
> members on this list around assigning value to ASN numbers or other number 
> resources. It's my own personal belief that allowing values to be placed 
> on those resources isn't a good thing, and should be avoided where 
> possible.
>
> The simplest way I saw to avoid assigning value or abusing this policy, 
> was to tie the resources to other tangible assets that do have value. I 
> actually agree it might not be the best, but I wanted to get the 
> discussion going. The heart of the issue I'm trying to get at is solving a 
> very real legal issue for ARIN Counsel, while not opening the door for 
> artificial valuation of number resources (except for IPv4 addresses per 
> what 8.3 already permits). I am very open to other community suggestions 
> to modify this, or other ways to accomplish this goal. The result of this 
> would be to have something in place to deal with bankruptcy situations, 
> and not have that one piece cloud the ongoing discussion on ARIN-2012-3 
> (or other future talks about transfers of resources).
>
> Thank you to all for your input.
>
> Cheers,
> Christoph
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: arin-ppml-bounces at arin.net [mailto:arin-ppml-bounces at arin.net] On
>> Behalf Of ARIN
>> Sent: May-09-12 1:47 PM
>> To: arin-ppml at arin.net
>> Subject: [arin-ppml] ARIN-prop-170 Transfer of Number Resources in case 
>> of
>> Bankruptcy
>>
>> ARIN-prop-170 Transfer of Number Resources in case of Bankruptcy
>>
>> ARIN received the following policy proposal and is posting it to the
>> Public Policy Mailing List (PPML) in accordance with the Policy
>> Development Process.
>>
>> The ARIN Advisory Council (AC) will review the proposal at their next
>> regularly scheduled meeting (if the period before the next regularly
>> scheduled meeting is less than 10 days, then the period may be extended
>> to the subsequent regularly scheduled meeting). The AC will decide how
>> to utilize the proposal and announce the decision to the PPML.
>>
>> The AC invites everyone to comment on the proposal on the PPML,
>> particularly their support or non-support and the reasoning
>> behind their opinion. Such participation contributes to a thorough
>> vetting and provides important guidance to the AC in their deliberations.
>>
>> Draft Policies and Proposals under discussion can be found at:
>> https://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/index.html
>>
>> The ARIN Policy Development Process can be found at:
>> https://www.arin.net/policy/pdp.html
>>
>> Mailing list subscription information can be found
>> at: https://www.arin.net/mailing_lists/
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Communications and Member Services
>> American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)
>>
>>
>> ## * ##
>>
>>
>> ARIN-prop-170 Transfer of Number Resources in case of Bankruptcy
>>
>> Proposal Originator: Christoph Blecker
>>
>> Proposal Version: 1.0
>>
>> Date: 9 May 2012
>>
>> Policy term: permanent
>>
>> Policy statement:
>>
>> NRPM 8.4 Bankruptcy Proceedings
>> Similar to section 8.2, ARIN will consider requests for the transfer of
>> number resources in the case of bankruptcy or other court-supervised
>> liquidation proceedings upon receipt of evidence that the receiving
>> entity has acquired assets that used resources from the current
>> registrant. ARIN will maintain an up-to-date list of acceptable types of
>> documentation.
>>
>> In the event that number resources of the receiving organization are no
>> longer justified under ARIN policy at the time ARIN becomes aware of the
>> transaction, through a transfer request or otherwise, ARIN will work
>> with the resource holder(s) to return, aggregate, transfer, or reclaim
>> resources as needed to restore compliance via the processes outlined in
>> current ARIN policy.
>>
>> Rationale:
>>
>> During policy discussions surrounding Draft Policy ARIN-2012-3 (ASN
>> Transfers), the community was advised by ARIN Counsel that there are
>> situations and cases currently making their way through the court system
>> where an entity has gone bankrupt and a court is supervising liquidation
>> of their assets. While number resources themselves are not assets, the
>> exclusive right to those number resources is, and this addresses the
>> need for these to be able to be moved with the other more tangible
>> network assets.
>>
>> Timetable for implementation: immediate
>> _______________________________________________
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