[arin-ppml] ARIN-PPML 2015-2

[David Conrad]

John,

>> all we're talking about is whether or not ARIN will be recording this in their database.
> 
> I’ll observe that the rights are to address blocks in the
> registry and that makes it rather challenging to assert any rights to the address blocks
> unless those rights were transferred in accordance with registry policy,

An interesting and worrisome assertion.

If organization A purchases a block of addresses from organization B _and is able to convince their ISP(s) to route that block of addresses_, it would seem the "rights" to that address block have been transferred from A to B, regardless of ARIN's position on the matter (they aren't a party to the transaction).

In a post IPv4 free pool world, where demand vastly outstrips supply and there will be competitive pressure on ISPs to accept prefixes presented by customers for routing, I have some skepticism the lack of accurate registration information in ARIN's database is going to be much of an issue (particularly if both A and B attest to the ISP(s) that the "transfer" was legit).

The fact that if that "transfer" was done outside of ARIN's policies resulting in ARIN refusing to register that transfer in the ARIN registry database would seem to have little impact other than to damage ARIN's registration database. Do that enough and I suspect "the community" will begin to look elsewhere for registration database services -- as you're aware, no one is forced to use ARIN's database.

While I guess it is true that if you view the "rights" in question as the entry in the ARIN registration database (a very odd viewpoint IMHO -- very much the tail wagging the dog from my perspective), this seems a bit divorced from reality as reflected by the actual use of address space on the Internet.

Historically, the point of the registry database was to facilitate management of the network, e.g., a place you could look up registration information when you wanted to contact the entity associated with the source address. In the post IPv4 free pool world, what's the point of the American _Registry_ for Internet Numbers again?

Thanks,
-drc
(ICANN CTO, but speaking only for myself. Really.)

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