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

[Bill Woodcock]

        > What is becoming clear is that ARIN addresses are not guaranteed
        > to be coordinated with routing in any way.
    
    No more so than the numbers registered with any other registry.  They
    never have been, and never will be, since registries do paperwork, not
    routing.  This should come as no surprise.
    
        > Which only raises the question -- if what ARIN gives isn't
        > routable, then what good is ARIN at all?
    
    I'm an ISP.  I route packets.  I'd rather not do paperwork.  They do
    paperwork.  They don't route packets.  They're a registry.
    
        > In other words, why should one pay ARIN money to obtain a block
        > of numbers which might turn out to be useless?
    
    No one is suggesting that you pay ARIN anything.  If you want them to
    do paperwork for you, you can pay them.  If you don't want anything
    from them, or feel that their registry service isn't of value, then by
    all means, spend your money elsewhere.
    
        > 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".
    
    I don't think I've ever seen an "active" number.
    
    Do you mean "routed?"  If so, yes, I think you'll probably need to pay
    money to an ISP to route your traffic.  Since, as stated above, at
    least once, ISPs route traffic. ARIN does not route traffic.  ARIN
    does paperwork.  ARIN is a registry.  If you want your traffic routed,
    yes, you need to pay an ISP to do that.
  
                             -Bill 

______________________________________________________________________________
bill woodcock woody at zocalo.net woody at nowhere.loopback.edu user at host.domain.com