My thoughts on ARIN web hosting policy

[John McNamee]

My first concern is that a significant policy change is being considered
without any formal study showing that IP-per-domain web hosting is actually
a major cause of IP address depletion.  I'm not saying it isn't -- I'm saying 
that I don't know, and nobody has done a scientific study of the issue.
Can't ARIN find some university to do the research and write a report?

Assuming the hard data emerges and IP-per-domain hosting is found
to be a threat to the address pool, it becomes a problem that the entire
industry must face together.  Any pain must be shared equally.  The
proposed ARIN policy could have a disparate impact on newer/smaller
hosting companies.  Large established companies with lots of existing
IP allocations could continue to offer IP-based hosting to some/all of
their customer base, while new entrants could not.  Regardless of
whether this rises to the level of a legal anti-trust problem (IANAL),
it bothers me on a fairness basis.  I believe strongly in free markets,
but the market isn't free if different rules apply to established players
versus new competitiors.

--
John McNamee
Director of Operations
ASP-One Inc.