nanog mailing list archives

Re: [YA] Fwd: Class B Purchase


From: Jeremy Porter <jerry () freeside fc net>
Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 23:56:05 -0500


In message <199810052200.PAA15671 () bb rc vix com>, "David R. Conrad" writes:
Karl,

Actually, there's every reason to believe that if you have space from prior
to the adoption of RFC2008 and 2050 you indeed do have something which is
(1) property, and (2) valuable if someone is willing to pay you for it.

As has been demonstrated repeatedly on this list and elsewhere, there are
people who place not-insignificant value on addresses.  The pragmatic among
us would probably argue that even after 2008/2050 or any other
pronouncement by any involved party, address space has value and in fact
has had and will have value as long as it provides an opportunity for a
service that has value.  Arguments to the contrary are approximately
equivalent to arguing the tide should not come in 'cause it messes up our
nice sand castles.

From previous discussions it appears to me that address space only has
value if it is globally reachable.  And previously there has been
discussion from organizations that state they would follow the
guidlines and policies reached by the community and address transfer
and validity.  Thus, if ARIN disallowed a trasnfer, it is like that
some percentage of large connectivity oriented organizitions, would
refuse connectivity to this space.

I'm sure Karl will point out how this is a violates US law and is
an unlawful monopoly.  Then again, so is De-Beers who still operates
with impuntity in the US, so the effectivitness of US law against these
multinational consiparcy.  So I'm not sure the US and its laws are
an effectivity regulatory agency for this growing international problem.

RIPE already operates an address verification service that service
providers can use to verify the validity of a prefix.  ARIN is discussing
a route registry service.

From the people I've seen and talked to, my sense is that providers
and users of the internet today, largely don't want to see the buying
and selling of so called legacy space.  

I guess I'll start to worry about it when the US Marshells show up
on my doorstep.  In the meantime the rest of us have an Internet to
run.






---
Jeremy Porter, Freeside Communications, Inc.      jerry () fc net
PO BOX 80315 Austin, Tx 78708  | 512-458-9810
http://www.fc.net


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