ARIN Advisory Council Policy Proposal

[Member Services]

In October of 2007 the ARIN Board of Trustees asked the Advisory Council
to consider a set of broad questions around the depletion of the free
pool of IPv4 addresses, the transition to IPv6 for Internet address
needs in the future, and ARIN's possible role in easing the transition.

Over the past few years the AC has spent a great deal of time reflecting
on these issues as a group, as individuals, and in consultation with the
community.  One output from this process is a policy proposal the AC
will be submitting for consideration at the next meeting.  We are
proposing some changes to existing ARIN policy regarding the transfer of
IP address block registrations between subscribers.  This will allow for
the emergence of transfers in IPv4 address space, with ARIN to provide a
listing service for address blocks available for transfer under the
revised transfer policy.

We are aware that this proposal, if adopted, will mark a major change in
ARIN's role in the community and the Internet. While the AC as a whole
believes the policy proposal to be well written and carefully
considered, we are not unanimous in all aspects of the policy proposal,
nor even are we united in the view that the proposed policy should be
adopted. We hope this policy proposal will spark debate and discussion,
and we look forward to getting additional community input on the topic.
  The AC as members of the ARIN community believe in the bottom up
process, and we urge the community to give this proposal the same
consideration and discussion they would give any other proposal.

We expect the AC's policy proposal to appear on ppml on Monday February
11th.  We encourage all members of the community to carefully read the
proposal and post comments.

Respectfully,

Leo Bicknell, Chair
For the ARIN Advisory Council