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

[Karl Auerbach]

> > 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.

Ok, so there is an agreement among the registries to divide the "market" 
into geographic areas.  And in each geographic area there is but one place
where one can go to get an address block. 

That only reinforces the notion that there are anti-competitive forces
afoot.

There are things, of which address allocation may be one, in which this
kind of monopoly is appropriate and legal.

> ... The contract they have with Network Solutions Inc. will
> expire in 1998 and it will not be renewed.

I wish I could be so sure... who in NSF or otherwise in a position to make
this happen has said that there will be no renewall?

> > 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, most of us who have old allocations obtained them from IANA, or for
even older allocations, from the "numbers czar".

For the most part, however, it is a near impossibility for most businesses
to go directly to IANA and not be referred right back to the internic.

> > 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.

Please calm down.

What is becoming clear is that ARIN addresses are not guaranteed to be
coordinated with routing in any way.

Which only raises the question -- if what ARIN gives isn't routable, then
what good is ARIN at all?

In other words, why should one pay ARIN money to obtain a block of numbers
which might turn out to be useless?

As a practical matter, I'm pretty sure that this won't happen.  However,
it does mean that after I get my numbers from ARIN, I'm going to probably
have to pay yet another fee to yet another organization to get those
numbers "activated".

How many gauntlets are ISPs going to have to run?

> > 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.

Your sense of what consitutes "regulation" is rather odd.  In my country,
any organization which has monopoly status over a resource is usually
subject to some degree of public oversight, not just "regulation by its
membership".

> I notice that you copied the antitrust people at the US Department of
> Justice

I didn't start this thread, I'm just keeping the cc list.

Although I must admit, that they should be looking into this, as should
the folks in your government.

> why they would have jurisdiction over an international organization such

An "international organization" is not immune from national laws.

Shell Oil may be an "international organization" but that doesn't block
national jurisdiction. 

To use this list's favorite pejoritive word -- there are a lot of people
who post here who are "clueless" regarding legal principles.

			--karl--