[arin-ppml] Revised - Draft Policy ARIN-2022-12: Direct Assignment Language Update

[William Herrin]

On Sat, Sep 30, 2023 at 6:39 PM Douglas Camin <doug at dougcamin.com> wrote:
> Reading the terms Allocation and Assignment, I see the primary
> distinction between them as one is “for you” and one is “for you to give to others.”

Hi Douglas,

To the extent that there was a "primary" distinction, it's that one
was for organizations acting like an ISP and one was for organizations
acting like end-users. The associated nuance was extensive: everything
from how you justified addresses to your public reporting
responsibilities to not only how much you paid but the very framework
for determining how much you paid. That's what made them "terms of
art." https://www.justia.com/dictionary/term-of-art/

Someone who looks up those terms in connection with ARIN is going to
find all the myriad explanations for how they worked. And be very
confused since things will no longer work that way.

The better plan is to pick a new term entirely. Leave assignment and
allocation in the definitions so that you can note that they're
obsolete and no longer used. Doesn't really matter what new words you
choose: they'll become the new term of art attached to the new
operating model.


> The rationale used was that it was more straightforward to revise the
> definition across the NRPM rather than replace each relevant
> instance of “allocation” and “assignment” with another term
> (allocation appears 245 times, and assignment appears 101 times.)

Understood but respectfully: I think that would be a mistake for the
reason described above.


Regards,
Bill Herrin


-- 
William Herrin
bill at herrin.us
https://bill.herrin.us/