Once this subject took off on nanog, I have been oversaturated with people trying to "sell" me ip space. I have had offers for several /16's for 10,000.00 each that are no longer in use by the companies who "own" lol them. I want to say to those people that made those offers to me....
Here is a very good point of why ip space should not be a property traded on an open market. To me ip space is like a house number or a telephone number. A resource required and useable for a presence on the global internet only. The current process of allocating ip space based on need makes perfect sense. In order to assess the need, certain aspects of a network have to be disclosed to ARIN, that makes perfect sense as well. I'd hate to see an open market place for ip space. The ability to afford ip space based on wealth rather then technical merit makes little sense to me. For those who feel ARIN policy is too restrictive and obtaining PI space it too difficult, perhaps working with ARIN to adjust those policies would be a good place to start. Adi