On Feb 3, 2011, at 6:38 PM, Benson Schliesser wrote:
Having said that, it should be clear that I view ARIN "reclaiming" legacy addresses that aren't under contract (i.e. LRSA) as fraud, perhaps even in the legal sense of the word. It might also be considered theft by some. But outright reclaiming from ongoing address holders isn't a big concern of mine, because I doubt ARIN will go far down that path (if it goes at all). My real concern is that ARIN might refuse to recognize legacy transfers, fail to update the Whois database, issue RPKI inappropriately, and cause real damage to live networks. This would be bad for the networks that implement ARIN Whois-based policy, of course.
Benson - ARIN provides legacy holders with WHOIS and IN-ADDR services without charge. If a legacy holder simply wishes to make use of their resources and maintains current directory information, ARIN left them fairly undisturbed since its formation. Via the Legacy RSA, ARIN offers contractual assurances to legacy holders of ARIN providing these services, as well as certain protections from reclamation and policy changes. Note that ARIN can't allow transfers contrary to the community-developed policy, so legacy address holders who wish to do more then just use their resources (e.g. transfer them) are encouraged to get involved in the community to create policies that match their needs. /John John Curran President and CEO ARIN