The fees are not charged for past services that were received for free, only for future services.
i believe Michael is extrapolating his ideal and not the actual practice at RIRs.
Not at all. Past services are anything that was received for free in the past. Future services are anything that is received as a normal paid member of ARIN. The ARIN membership fee is determined by the size of the address allocation that was received in the past, but it is not a payment for past services. Why is this so hard for people to understand? If I received a copy of Windows 3.1 for free then I can use it forever without paying. But if I want to get a copy of Windows XP, then I must pay the normal fee for Windows XP. Microsoft will not charge me an additional fee over and above the normal fee that everyone else pays for XP. Many people registered .com domain names for free. Then one day, there was an annual fee. However, nobody was charged an annual fee for the PAST YEARS in which they had had free use of their .com domain name. The level of the playing field was raised, but it remained a level playing field. --Michael Dillon