<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><blockquote type="cite"><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><br></font>If we are going to leave it up to the discretion of the RIR whether or not<br>or how they do it then the entire clause is meaningless and should be<br>omitted.<br><br></div></blockquote>Not entirely.</div><div><br></div><div>Without policy (globally coordinated policy), I'm not sure IANA has a</div><div>way to accept and/or re-issue space returned by RIRs, at least not</div><div>in chunks smaller than /8.</div><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>Are we going to tell everyone they have to return the space or are we just<br>going to suggest it would be nice? If it is the latter then it has no place<br>in policy. There is no point in telling young Johnnie that he has to be<br>home no later than 10:00 unless he decides he wants to stay out later. I<br>see no carrot, stick, or even enforceable limit emplaced here.<br><br></div></blockquote>That's the big question. I, for one, feel that it is inappropriate for an RIR to</div><div>return space to IANA if there is a justified need for that space to be issued</div><div>to other organizations within the RIR's region. However, I do feel that</div><div>it is good for excess space in any region to be returned to IANA to be</div><div>redistributed to other regions.</div><div><br></div><div><blockquote type="cite"><div>If we make this conditional on local policy then the RIR can do an end run<br>with a simple policy change. With that in place the entire exercise is<br>meaningless. <br><br></div></blockquote>Well... Said RIR can, essentially opt-out of returning the space to IANA,</div><div>but, the rest of the policy would still stand. However, with a simple</div><div>policy change, an RIR can make it impossible to return space to the</div><div>RIR, so, I'm not sure there's much of a difference there.</div><div><br></div><div>I think it is reasonable to make enabling policy without necessarily</div><div>making it a forced issue. RIRs certainly should be able to return excess</div><div>space to IANA and certainly should be encouraged to do so. However,</div><div>I have an issue with RIRs being forced to return space which may not</div><div>be excess within their region, so much as in need of redistribution</div><div>within the region.</div><div><br></div><div>Owen</div><div><br></div></body></html>