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RE: [Fwd: Kremen VS Arin Antitrust Lawsuit - Anyone have feedback?]


From: "Daniel Golding" <dgolding () tier1research com>
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 14:50:04 -0400




Nick,

You make an incorrect assumption - that IP addresses are currently free
(they are not, in either money or time) and that commoditizing them will
increase their cost (there is significant evidence it will not). 

If I have the choice between paying $500 for a /24 of PI space or going to
my upstreams, getting IP space, applying to ARIN for a /22 of PI space,
eventually numbering out of the PA space - how much money have I spent?

- Daniel Golding

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nanog () merit edu [mailto:owner-nanog () merit edu] On Behalf Of
Michael Nicks
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 2:19 PM
To: andrew2 () one net
Cc: nanog () merit edu
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Kremen VS Arin Antitrust Lawsuit - Anyone have
feedback?]


The real fundamental flaw with this free-market approach to handling IP
assignments is the fact that it will further create an environment where
smaller (start-ups, small businesses) entities trying to acquire PI
space will face insurmountable challenges (eg, financial).

While I think the majority of people these days would agree that the
free-market approach to economics is definitely the best, certain
resources are not very applicable to be traded in a free-market
environment. I myself do not like over-bureaucratic processes, and while
all of us at one time or another have complained about ARIN's
procedures, policies, and practices, the purpose they serve is a needed
one.

Best Regards,
-Michael

--
Michael Nicks
Network Engineer
KanREN
e: mtnicks () kanren net
o: +1-785-856-9800 x221
m: +1-913-378-6516



andrew2 () one net wrote:

3) What's wrong with treating assignments like property and setting up a
market to buy and sell them? There's plenty of precedent for this:

 Mineral rights, mining claims, Oil and gas leases, radio spectrum.

 If a given commodity is truly scarce, nothing works as good as the free
market in encouraging consumers to conserve and make the best use of it.


I think you're dead-on there, but you forget who you're really trying to
convince.  It'll happen eventually but in the meantime the greybeards
who were largely responsible for the Internet as we know it (and who by
and large still wield significant influence if not still stewardship)
will be dragged there kicking and screaming from their
academic/pseudo-Marxist ideals, some of whom seem to still resent the
commercialization of the Internet.  It's also hard to see the faults in
the system when you are insulated by your position as member of the
politburo.

The flip side of the coin of course is that if you let the free market
reign on IP's, you may price developing countries right off the Internet
which I don't think anyone sees as a desirable outcome.  There's sure to
be a happy middle ground that people smarter than I will figure out, and
maybe it takes a silly lawsuit such as this to kick things off.

Andrew Cruse



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