[arin-ppml] Policy Experience Report Working Group Leasing Question

[David Farmer]

I’m no lawyer, but 501c14s, state chartered credit unions, and 501c6s,
business leagues and how ARIN is organized, have significantly different
purposes and rules. Could ARIN auction the waiting list resources, maybe,
but it’s likely to be the cause for a significant review by the IRS. With
such a review, there is a risk, significant in my opinion, the auction
could be ruled a non-exempt business activity, and risk ARIN’s tax exempt
status. In any case, this is really a matter for the ARIN board and not
really a policy discussion.

Thanks.

On Sun, May 7, 2023 at 18:55 Michel Py <michel at arneill-py.sacramento.ca.us>
wrote:

> Hi David,
>
> > David Farmer wrote :
> > Suggestions that ARIN should instead auction the waiting list resources,
> while seemingly logical, given
> > the success of the transfer market, nevertheless seem incompatible with
> ARIN's not-for-profit status.
>
> I have to disagree with that. I work for a Credit Union, that some people
> call a not-for-profit bank.
> We do not have publicly traded shares, and obviously we do not pay
> dividends to shareholders. _That_ would be profit.
> However, we do make money. Revenue, which is not the same thing as profit.
> If you were to have a loan to buy a car or a mortgage to acquire a house,
> not only you would have to pay it back, but you'd also have to pay us
> interest. We are a non-profit, not a charity, we do not give free money
> away and we even make money on financial markets. That is how we pay our
> bills and our employees. It's not greed, but we do have to make a buck like
> everyone else including ARIN.
>
> There is nothing wrong for a non-profit to make money. ARIN does make
> money : we pay fees. How that money is used could (and should) indeed be
> questioned, if it was used to lower member fees or pay for expenses, I
> don't see any fundamental problem with ARIN charging $38 (or whatever the
> market is) per IP as a fee to transfer space that would become available or
> reclaimed.
>
> Now, let's hypothesize that 240/4 becomes available for public routing
> unicast allocation and that ARIN gets a /6 out of it, 67 million IP at $38
> a pop would be 2 billion and change, then that would be a different issue.
> If the waiting list was to disappear, it would be wise to have some
> language that Class E suddenly becoming available would not be auctioned
> out.
> But given what I would call a trickle that the waiting list currently is,
> I don't see a problem.
>
> Michel
>
-- 
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David Farmer               Email:farmer at umn.edu
Networking & Telecommunication Services
Office of Information Technology
University of Minnesota
2218 University Ave SE        Phone: 612-626-0815
Minneapolis, MN 55414-3029   Cell: 612-812-9952
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