[arin-ppml] On USG 'granting of rights' (was: ARIN-PPML 2015-2)

[John Curran]

On Jun 3, 2015, at 6:25 PM, William Herrin <bill at herrin.us<mailto:bill at herrin.us>> wrote:
...
Neat trap! LRSA signers, aren't you glad you signed the LRSA? All your
IP are belong to ARIN.

I'll have to put some thought into this one.

Bill -

I’ll spare you the effort, since (as far as I know) it wouldn’t be ARIN being the “owner”
in any case…

If (in an alternate world) IP addresses were to be deemed to be freehold property rather
than simply a specific set of rights, then it is quite likely that they would be USG property
(dependent upon a rather interesting and convoluted set of agreements that led to their
development.) Some contractors may have a potential claim as well; good luck with that.

Under the “IP property" worldview, all of us (and I mean everyone) has been making use
of US Government IP addresses, all of which the USG has gone along with because it
facilitates various USG goals regarding the Internet.  Since only the GSA and DoD can
actually dispose of US government property, and even that has to be done via strict
processes, it is quite unlikely that anyone can claim that the USG has ever sold some
IP address “property” to them…

In either case, ARIN administers the registry in accordance with the "United States
Government’s Internet Protocol Numbering Principles”, a copy of which may be found
here -  <http://www.ntia.doc.gov/blog/2012/united-states-government-s-internet-protocol-numbering-principles>

Enjoy,
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
ARIN


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