ARIN Already Incorporated ?

[Jim Fleming]

On Monday, July 07, 1997 8:40 PM, Paul Ferguson[SMTP:pferguso at cisco.com] wrote:
@ At 08:10 PM 07/07/97 -0500, Eric Weisberg wrote:
@ 
@ >> 
@ >> ARIN's charter is not to "run the net," as you seem to imply,
@ >> but rather, its charter is to provide IP address allocation and
@ >> registration services for greater North America. Also, if you'd
@ >> bother to do your homework, you would also realize that ARIN is
@ >> following a model which has been in place in Europe (RIPE) and
@ >> the Asian Pacific region (APNIC) for several years now, and all
@ >> indications are that this model functions remarkably well.
@ >> 
@ >
@ >Paul, I need some help here.  Where can I find ARIN's charter? 
@ >
@ 
@ Ah, you are looking for a literal charter document, which doesn't
@ exist. I meant 'charter' in the figurative sense, in that the
@ purpose of ARIN is spelled out in documents found on their
@ web site, namely:
@ 
@  http://www.arin.net/arin_faq.html
@ 
@ - paul
@ 
@ 
@ 

According to the following, Network Solutions, Inc. (a subsidiary of SAIC)
has already incorporated ARIN. There is no mention of who the shareholders
are or the members of the Board of Directors. Also, there is no mention
of how the assets being transferred from NSI/SAIC to ARIN are being
handled.

@@@@@ ftp://www.sec.gov/edgar/data/1030341/0000950133-97-002418.txt

"The Company has recently received authorization from the
NSF to shift the allocation and administration of IP addresses to
a not-for-profit organization. In support of this initiative, the Company
has incorporated a not-for-profit organization named the American
Registry for Internet Numbers (the "ARIN") to administer IP addresses
for North and South America and parts of Africa. The Company anticipates
that the responsibility for the allocation and administration of IP addresses
will be transferred to ARIN by the fourth quarter of 1997. The Company
has agreed with the NSF to provide financial support to ARIN through the
end of the first quarter of 1998. The Company believes that the amount of
such support will not be material to the Company's business, financial
condition or results of operations."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@


The IP address allocations (assets) being transferred to ARIN are worth millions
of dollars. It is still unclear which /8 blocks are being transferred to ARIN. It
is also still unclear who will be managing the .ARPA Top Level Domain.
Some people claim that ARIN will be handling that, others claim NSI. The
National Science Foundation should work that out BEFORE we have another
situation where one company is allowed to charge whatever it pleases for
Internet resource usage without any recourse from the people and companies
that depend on those resources.

--
Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation