Re: questions about ARIN ipv6 allocation

[John Curran <jcurran () arin net>]

On 10 Dec 2021, at 5:00 PM, John Gilmore <gnu () toad com<mailto:gnu () toad com>> wrote:
...
Owen, the root of your problem is that you signed an LRSA with ARIN,
rather than keeping your legacy resources un-tainted by an ARIN contract
that deliberately reduced your rights

Signing a contract with ARIN certainly clarifies and makes specific the rights involved, but it is not possible to say 
“reduces” with any certainty as the existing rights are rather unclear without a specific statement of what rights were 
granted at the time.   Alas, issuance of number resources in the early days did not make the rights or associated 
obligations clear.   Some legacy resource holders find entering into an RSA with ARIN to be quite useful and others 
prefer not to – that choice is up to them, and is not required as the the ARIN Board of Trustees has directed that ARIN 
continue to provide the same basic registration services available at our formation to all legacy resource holders 
without fee or contract.

The short-term contract for the transfer honors and retains the legacy
status of those resources: that you own them, not the ARIN fiction that
an RIR now controls them and will steal them from you if you stop paying
them annually.

For organizations that do enter into a registration agreement with ARIN, there are indeed obligations (such as payment 
of registry fees) that are quite real but also benefits such as the ability to obtain new services funded by such fees 
and participation in the governance of ARIN.  As noted above - folks can enter into an agreement (or not) as they deem 
best.  Note one of the other advantages of the upcoming change to ARIN’s fee structure is that it will also open up 
ARIN membership and voting to all contracted registry customers with IPv4 or IPv6 number resources – rather than just 
those previously deemed ISPs – so those who do enter into a RSA and choose to participate in ARIN governance will have 
the equal ability to vote for the Board and set ARIN’s practices with regard to legacy resource holders.

Thanks,
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers