On Feb 5, 2011, at 10:27 AM, bmanning@vacation.karoshi.com wrote:
On Sat, Feb 05, 2011 at 10:17:29AM -0800, Bill Woodcock wrote:
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On Feb 5, 2011, at 11:22 AM, bmanning@vacation.karoshi.com wrote:
ARIN's community certinly is dominated by a particular type of network operator.
It's dominated by the type of network operator who shows up and participates.
Generally, I hear what you're saying and don't disagree, but this is one of those truisms that applies across the whole spectrum of Internet governance: constrained-resource allocation, protocol definition, route and capacity forecasting, carrier interconnect, what-have-you. It's the people who sit back and say that someone else is doing it who don't get represented and don't get their way. So while I absolutely recognize the phenomenon you're describing and wish it were otherwise, the solution is action, not complaint.
-Bill
there is no complaint here bill. there is simply the observation that if I justified an allocation 20 years ago, under the then current policy, that it is, at best, presumptious to presume the power of expropriation without taking into account the doctrine of eminent domain. If the RIR's and there active members want to take my right to use space away - I expect to be compensated at fair market value. I'm pretty sure that those arguments are going to be tested in the courts ...
--bill
Bill, The RIRs can't take your right to do anything away, including your right to run a competing registry in which you are the sole recipient of 0.0.0.0/2 if you like. What the RIRs MIGHT do (and note that I would not support such action) is terminate registration services for those that have no contract with the RIR. Once they have done that, they are free to register the uniqueness of numbers previously registered as a free service to those without contracts to others who do have contracts. Whether or not anyone in the outside world makes use of that registration data is a matter of independent decision on the part of each consumer of registration data. Your right to use a particular set of addresses on a particular network is not granted by any RIR. It is granted by the people who run the routers on that network. It is up to the operators of each individual network to choose which network numbers they route and to whom. The fact that a very large number of network operators use the data contained in the RIR system in a cooperative manner is convenient and makes the internet substantially more useful than I can imagine it would be under alternative scenarios. However, that does not mean that the RIRs are granting any sort of license, right to use, or ownership. Nor does it mean that terminating a registration constitutes taking away such a grant that was never given. Owen