[arin-ppml] On the history of early number registrations, ARIN, and ARIN's role in the administration of the Internet number registry

[John Curran]

On 14 Apr 2022, at 12:43 PM, Fernando Frediani <fhfrediani at gmail.com<mailto:fhfrediani at gmail.com>> wrote:

Thanks for the history and better clarification. However it is not still clear to me if ARIN can, at some point and under which conditions recover these legacy blocks which look abandoned and have zero signal of being used or have some organization looking after it, and send to be re-assigned to the waiting list.

Fernando -

It is far better to discuss what is reasonable and appropriate to do than “what could ARIN do”…

I agree with some of the messages that is not reasonable to think that after all this time some organizations may be unaware of what is happening that justifies to keep having special treatment. 25 years is quiet a while ! Legacy Resources has always been an issue in different aspects and there should have been more stuff done to avoid certain controversies where possible overtime. I personally don't have a problem with them keeping the resources as long they have justification of need and not just based on "acquired rights".

Yes, one can easily argue that 25 years is “a long time”, but that actually goes both ways…   An organization obtains rights to an IP address block, and then goes about using it internally.  At the time of obtaining it, there is not any clear set of obligations to: a) route it on the Internet, b) maintain accurate contact information, c) use a certain percentage of space internally, d) etc.    There is, however, clear documents that say that even organizations using IP address space internally should get an IP address block that’s globally unique (so as to reduce the risk of potential conflicts with other organizations in the future due to private interconnection or merger/acquisition or connection to the Internet.)

The fact that the 25 years has passed and they are unaware of what is happening in the this community isn’t a sign of anything amiss - it’s simply means that no expectation was set in that regard (and it’s not quite not to pass judgement based on today’s notations and expectations…)

If I understand it correctly it is possible to advance further in this specific matter without a need for the community to produce and agree in a new policy, so what prevents this from happening ?

Community consensus on an appropriate policy that can be applied on a fair and impartial basis.

Are there any major legal risks or is it just extra patience with those who don't seem to want to cooperate in a well established system for the past decades ?

It’s not legal risk as much as whether the community can develop a policy that deals fairly with those who haven’t been involved in the registry after all these years and who may be utilizing their resources but otherwise unreachable… that’s a non-trivial task indeed.

Thanks,
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers


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