Jon Lewis wrote:
In small quantities, and which tie you to particular providers. Shells of companies have been bought (or just claimed) for their large, especially pre-ARIN, PI-IP assignments. To a young ISP, a /16 for example may seem like a lifetime supply of IP space, and save the company many thousands of dollars (ARIN registration fees) and paperwork hassles.
Actually, their issue is that ARIN would only transfer the netblock to them under the condition of them signing the contract (which effectively states that ARIN controls the netblocks). They would also be liable for the annual fees. They are trying to treat IP address space as property which they own, and refuse to agree to ARIN registration/fees to obtain what they feel is their property. Unfortunately, while ARIN is a steward and technically does not *own* the IP address space, neither does the ISP that uses the space. The defendant apparently misses the fact that IP space is a community asset and is thus handled by the community. IANAL, but I doubt they can prove Antitrust in this case. If only we could handle other limited resources in the world as effectively; including BGP routing table bloat. -Jack