US CODE: Title 15, Chapter 1, Section 2.

[Michael Dillon]

On Fri, 31 Jan 1997, Karl Auerbach wrote:

> >     I think, Tim, that you're the only person who's mentioned "charging
> >     for IP address space."  You'll recall that all anyone else is
> >     interested in doing is providing registry services.
> 
> I don't agree with your analogy -- An address registered with any other
> registry is a worthless address.  ARIN is the sole source for address
> assignment which will be recognized in the routing of the Internet.

Well, you are simply wrong about this. ARIN is not the sole source. If any
organization is the sole source of IPv4 addresses that can be used on the
global public Internet, it is IANA. IANA normally delegates the job of
allocating IP addresses to other registries although it does sometimes
allocate addresses directly. There are currently three such registries.
Reseau IP Europeens (RIPE) allocates addresses to organizations in Europe,
the Middle East and Northern Africa. Asia-Pacific Network Information
Centre (APNIC) allocates addresses to organizations in Asia, Australia and
Oceania. Both RIPE and APNIC are non-governmental industry organizations. 
The third registry is the Internic which allocates IP addresses in North
America, South America and South Africa. The Internic is currently
operated by a private company under contract to the US government's
National Science Foundation.

The National Science Foundation is not in the business of funding
commercial activities and now that the Internet has transitioned from
a research activity into a commercial activity they have withdrawn any
future funding. The contract they have with Network Solutions Inc. will
expire in 1998 and it will not be renewed. This means that someone else
has to take over the job of running the IP address registry and doing IP
allocations. It makes a lot of sense to create a non-profit industry
organization such as ARIN to do this job and that is what people are
currently dicussing on the NAIPR mailing list. We are still hashing out
the structure of ARIN, how much people will pay for membership, how to
recover the costs involved in doing IP allocation according to the
international standards set by the IETF, and so on. 

> The "service" of registration with ARIN is an and necessary act for one to
> obtain a usable network address.

Even today before ARIN has been formed there are organizations that have
bypassed the Internic and received network addresses directly from IANA.

> Yes, others can establish address registries.  However ARIN is the
> exclusive source for addresses within the only address space that is
> recognized by the routing of the internet.

I think I have quite clearly demonstrated that you are wrong on this
point. The website at http://www.arin.net contains a reading list that you
should read to familiarize yourself with before making such innaccurate
and inflammatory comments. In addition you should read through the NAIPR
archives available at the website since a number of people have posted
tutorial material to the list.

> So whether ARIN behaves in a benign way or not, one must recognize that
> it's position is one of immense power subject to no competitve controls
> and no regulatory authority.

ARIN itself will be the regulatory authority and will be subject to direct
control by all organizations who receive IP address allocations since they
will be the members of ARIN. If you have any argument with the outline of
ARIN as it appears on the website, then remember that it is currently in
the proposal stage and you are wasting time by attacking it for being
wrong. A more productive use of your time would be to point out where it
is weak and explain how it could be changed for the better.

I notice that you copied the antitrust people at the US Department of
Justice so I am doing the same. Although I must confess that I don't see
why they would have jurisdiction over an international organization such
as ARIN. Doesn't your country have some other government department that
handles international affairs? I can assure you that if the US Department
of Justice did step in and attempt to do anything with ARIN, it would not
take long for the matter to come to the attention of the Minister of
Foreign Affairs here in Canada. The entire purpose of ARIN is for the
Internet industry to continue to self-regulate and thus to keep the cost
burden off the taxpayers of our countries and put that burden on the
industry which benefits most from the Internet.

Michael Dillon                   -               Internet & ISP Consulting
Memra Software Inc.              -                  Fax: +1-250-546-3049
http://www.memra.com             -               E-mail: michael at memra.com