----- Original Message -----
From: "John Curran" <jcurran@arin.net>
On Feb 3, 2011, at 3:02 PM, Jay Ashworth wrote: To be clear, that's not ARIN "legally compelling an entity to cease using a specific block of address space" We've never claimed that authority, and I'm not aware of any entity that does claim such authority to compel organizations to make router and system configuration changes. We do claim authority to manage the database as part of our organizational mission.
I was insufficiently clear, I guess. If that database, which it is your mission to manage, purports to contain "address blocks which an applicant can safely deploy without fear of conflicting routes being advertised on the greater Internet" (as I understand that it does), and I were such an applicant, and you assigned me a block which was in dispute -- it had been adversely taken away from someone who believed they had rights to it -- *and they were still using it* -- then I as that new applicant would be very unhappy with ARIN, particularly if they did not notify me that there was a conflict. Whether I would take action against ARIN or the old holder, I dunno; IANAL. But, in short, if ARIN ever *does* take a block back adversely, and the holder refuses to let it go, and ARIN assigns that block to someone else... well, things might get messy. Cheers, -- jra