LAST CALL for Recommended Draft Policy ARIN-2015-2: Modify 8.4 (Inter-RIR Transfers to Specified Recipients)

[ARIN]

The ARIN Advisory Council (AC) met on 21 October 2016 and decided to 
send Recommended Draft Policy ARIN-2015-2: Modify 8.4 (Inter-RIR 
Transfers to Specified Recipients) to Last Call:

The AC provided the following statement to the community:

Recommended Draft Policy ARIN 2015-2 contributes to fair and impartial 
number resources administration by removing an impediment to the 
transfer of IPv4 numbering resources to other RIRs when business needs 
change.  This recommended draft allows for an entity to transfer 
addresses within the first 12 months after receiving a 24 month supply 
via the transfer market. It is technically sound in that it balances 
removing limits on transfers of IPv4 numbering resources to other RIRs 
with safeguards related to common ownership and control of the source 
and recipient to reduce the likelihood of fraudulent transactions. There 
is strong community support for this recommended draft policy as written.

Feedback is encouraged during the Last Call period. All comments should 
be provided to the Public Policy Mailing List. This Last Call will 
expire on 9 November 2016. After Last Call, the AC will conduct their 
Last Call review.

The full text is below and available at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/

The ARIN Policy Development Process is available at:
https://www.arin.net/policy/pdp.html

Regards,

Communications and Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)



Recommended Draft Policy ARIN 2015-2: Modify 8.4 (Inter-RIR Transfers to 
Specified Recipients)

AC's assessment of conformance with the Principles of Internet Number 
Resource Policy:

Draft Policy ARIN 2015-2 contributes to fair and impartial number 
resources administration by removing an impediment to the transfer of 
IPv4 numbering resources to other RIRs when business needs change within 
the first 12 months of receipt of a 24 month supply of IP addresses by 
an entity via the transfer market. It is technically sound in that it 
balances removing limits on transfers of IPv4 numbering resources to 
other RIRs with safeguards related to ownership and control described in 
the draft policy to reduce the likelihood of fraudulent transactions. 
There was strong community support for this draft policy at the NANOG 66 
PPC and ARIN 37, subject only to some suggested editorial changes which 
have now been implemented in the latest version.

Problem Statement:

Organizations that obtain a 24 month supply of IP addresses via the 
transfer market and then have an unexpected change in business plan are 
unable to move IP addresses to the proper RIR within the first 12 months 
of receipt.

Policy statement:

Replace 8.4, bullet 3, to read: "Source entities within the ARIN region 
must not have received a transfer, allocation, or assignment of IPv4 
number resources from ARIN for the 12 months prior to the approval of a 
transfer request, unless either the source or recipient entity owns or 
controls the other, or both are under common ownership or control. This 
restriction does not include M&A transfers."

Comments: Organizations that obtain a 24 month supply of IP addresses 
via the transfer market and then have an unexpected change in business 
plan are unable to move IP addresses to the proper RIR within the first 
12 months of receipt. The need to move the resources does not flow from 
ARIN policy, but rather from the requirement of certain registries 
outside the ARIN region to have the resources moved in order to be used 
there.

The intention of this change is to allow organizations to perform 
inter-RIR transfers of space received via an 8.3 transfer regardless of 
the date transferred to ARIN. A common example is that an organization 
acquires a block located in the ARIN region, transfers it to ARIN, then 
3 months later, the organization announces that it wants to launch new 
services out of region. Under current policy, the organization is 
prohibited from moving some or all of those addresses to that region's 
Whois if there is a need to move them to satisfy the rules of the other 
region requiring the movement of the resources to that region in order 
for them to be used there. Instead, the numbers are locked in ARIN's 
Whois. It's important to note that 8.3 transfers are approved for a 24 
month supply, and it would not be unheard of for a business model to 
change within the first 12 months after approval. The proposal also 
introduces a requirement for an affiliation relationship between the 
source and recipient entity, based on established corporate law 
principles, so as to make it reasonably likely that eliminating the 12 
month anti-flip period in that situation will meet the needs of 
organizations that operate networks in more than one region without 
encouraging abuse.

a. Timetable for implementation: Immediate

b. Anything else: N/A