I for one, think that this resource would be less "scarce" if it were not free. As an ISP who has and is investing substantial sums of money in our operation, I cannot afford to be put out of business due to lack of IP addresses. Speaking for my company and its customers, we would be more than willing to pay for IP space if we could be assured of getting it when we need it to service our customers! Hopefully, a market approach to assigning IP space would take into account large blocks and Class B's being held and not used at all. I happen to know of a small high tech company in Silicon Valley that holds more than one class B, and could barely spell Internet last year when we talked to them about attaching. Kind Regards, John A. Russo GeoNet Communications, Inc.