On Mon, Sep 19, 2022 at 9:21 AM Tom Beecher <beecher@beecher.cc> wrote:
A bit of an exaggeration there. The RSA says that you are bound by all current and future policies that come from the Policy Development Process. The PDP is open to everyone except ARIN Trustees or Staff. So by definition, ARIN could not unilaterally decide to change a policy on how addresses were used.
The board of trustees can change the policy development process in arbitrary ways at any time. They have done so more than once since ARIN's inception. Moreover, in the current process the board has unilateral authority to reject or adjust proposals which come out of the process before adoption. And lest you forget, the current process starts with the advisory council who can originate and exercise complete control over the text of policy proposals. So structurally, ARIN and its officials can indeed unilaterally decide to change a policy on how addresses are used. They don't currently. But nothing in the law or the contract prevents it.
To a point I do. But I have yet to hear an argument from a legacy allocation holder that didn't boil to "I want to have the flexibility to do things with this space that I wouldn't have if I had gotten it assigned post RIR. I don't know what those things might be, and I don't care if others don't get to do those things too."
For what it's worth, in pursuing equalization I'd rather see the contractees' rights liberalized than my own rights restricted. Regards, Bill Herrin -- For hire. https://bill.herrin.us/resume/