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

[Drake Pallister]

Dear Sirs:

Thank you for your time and knowledge.

I had originally posted a potential suggestion as an extra method of keeping 
safe, the ARIN resources of a failing company or entity during its 
disposition, reorganization or liquidation in such a way to blatantly 
segregate and keep separate, the "resources" so they don't become globed in 
with a failing company's real assets-- or become distorted as real assets in 
the minds of any unknowing,  devious, or  unintentionally negligent persons 
overseeing such a company's disassembly or reconstruction.

My suggestion was not based upon a company being acquired and kept operating 
in the same manner. It had been a reply geared toward a situation where 
there was nothing like an orderly sale or merger, but a failing company 
being shreaded, torn down and with the Internet resources being considered 
as a sellable asset of the company.

I had somewhere compared my suggestion to a safe haven or safe harbor (for 
the resources, of course).  Please forgive me if that phrase is formally 
utilized somewhere within AIRN or NRPM specs.

I believed that if the resources are temporarily taken back and secluded, it 
would place an additional layer of distance between the "resources" and the 
confusing troubles of the failing company comingling its assets and the 
resources.


My suggestion of the safe harbor or safe haven was not to assist the failing 
company, nor facilitate a transfer to a potential purchaser(s). I was in 
fact attempting to come up with a suggestion to prevent Internet "resources" 
(ASN's , allocations) from being globed in with all of the failing company's 
sellable assets. Though we know that any new entity(ies) picking up the 
pieces from a failed company who is a resource holder must  themselves 
qualify for issuance of the resources. The entity(ies) licking up the pieces 
shouldn't simply get an automatic ``walk`` or shoe-in because they picked up 
the pieces of a failed resource holder who had qualified. The safe 
harbor/haven protective custody idea is to prevent all of the uninformed, 
unknowledgeable people (bankers, lien holders, receivers, trustees) from 
believing or construing that these ARIN resources are 'not' any part of the 
failed/bankrupt company's sellable or impoundable real assets such as their 
bank accounts, equipment, desks, chairs, etc. Also, if any company is a 
state of insolvency or seizure, since I believe they are already therefore 
disqualified from being resource holders. That safe-holding in the case of a 
bankruptcy type of scenario would be a place within ARIN where such 
resources might be held in safety to: A.) remove the possible need for ARIN 
to have to struggle to regain the assets. B.) make for some method for the 
resources to stay active on the Internet, and not `throw into the dark` the 
failing company's customer base; also adding to a possibly further 
devaluation of the troubled company's remaining value, as their customer 
base would be impacted very negatively (innocent people of the general 
public) and would permanently disappear. C.) protect the resources ASN's, IP 
Allocations, whatever, intact in the event the troubled company successfully 
pulls through; or have those assets intact and readily available and under 
ARIN's roof for assignment to the entity(ies) picking up the pieces of the 
failed company if they don't pull through-- (provided they qualify, of 
course). During bankruptcy proceedings, foreclosures, or  impoundments, real 
and perceived assets could be scattered, lost, traded, etc., and wind up in 
the hands of untold numbers of people or entities anywhere in the world. 
Even if the troubled company came back to health, some assets are likely to 
have been damaged or lost beyond recovery. ARIN should not be expected to do 
this for free. The safe haven/harbor idea is to provide a sovereign holding 
method for the Internet resources.  If it happens to benefit the troubled 
company who does get back to health-- or the entity(ies) picking up the 
pieces if a liquidation is ultimately performed-- then so be it, as a side 
effect. However, during such a rough, devious, and confusing ride, the 
resources would remain protected and with absolute certainty that they are 
not globed in with the troubled company's real assets. The idea was to 
provide protection for the resources which are integral components of the 
Internet that we all watch over.

With all respect,
Drake Pallister


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Curran" <jcurran at arin.net>
To: "Astrodog" <astrodog at gmx.com>
Cc: <arin-ppml at arin.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 11:38 PM
Subject: Re: [arin-ppml] ARIN-prop-170 Transfer of Number Resources in case 
Bankruptcy


> On May 10, 2012, at 5:47 PM, Astrodog wrote:
>
>> I don't see why a bankruptcy sale of networking equipment is somehow
>> distinct in allocation terms from an entity selling the equipment
>> without entering bankruptcy. ARIN does not allow automatic transfer of
>> number resources in the latter case. If the purchasing entity intends to
>> continue to operate the network of the bankrupt entity similarly to the
>> way the bankrupt entity was, meeting the needs requirement should be
>> trivial, and the safe harbor provision proposed above would ensure that
>> such a transition could be performed relatively seamlessly as a standard
>> 8.3 transfer.
>
> In the case of an entity acquiring the network operations of another firm
> and continuing to operate it in a similar manner, we already process these
> transfer requests in accordance with NRPM 8.2 (mergers and acquisitions).
> This applies equally well to networks which are sold as part of the normal
> bankruptcy process, and hence it is not exactly clear what additional
> benefits the "safe harbor" approach would provide over existing policy.
>
> FYI,
> /John
>
> John Curran
> President and CEO
> ARIN
>
> _______________________________________________
> PPML
> You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to
> the ARIN Public Policy Mailing List (ARIN-PPML at arin.net).
> Unsubscribe or manage your mailing list subscription at:
> http://lists.arin.net/mailman/listinfo/arin-ppml
> Please contact info at arin.net if you experience any issues.
>