ARIN /8s ?

[Dick St.Peters]

> > As has been pointed out numerous times, an IP allocation is a LEASE, not a
> > SALE.  Just as a leased house is not an asset you can claim, neither is an
> > IP allocation.  Technically, ARIN will be leased a portion of the IP space
> > (just like RIPE and APNIC, and formerly NSI) from the IANA.
> 
> A "lease" is, under the law of most, if not all, jurisdictions, and under
> accepted accounting principles, a property right, which, in fact, does,
> and often must, show up on balance sheets.

> To the extent that one can trace IP address space back to a US
> governmental authority, the handling of those property rights must accord
> with the various Constitutional requirements of due process.


I'm no lawyer, but my guess is that the legal concept of a lease being
property derives from the fact that what is being leased is property
to begin with - i.e., when you lease an office, the lease has value
because the office has value.

In the absence of routing, an IP allocation is simply a number with no
value.  If legally ignorant technical people misusing legal terms to
express concepts is going to be the basis for Constitutional legal
considerations, I've a few legal terms I'd like to misuse myself. :)

What's meant when people say an IP allocation is a lease not a sale is
that no ownership of anything is transferred.  A registration service
is performed, and the numbers registered have no value yet.

The routing/IP service that add value to the numbers must be arranged
separately, by buying the service from someone in a position to
provide it, or by building a network sufficiently large to qualify for
peering.

I really doubt I obliged to go through due process in order not to
route someone's addresses ...

--
Dick St.Peters, stpeters at NetHeaven.com 
Gatekeeper, NetHeaven, Saratoga Springs, NY, 1-800-910-6671 (voice)
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