A few things come to mind as I follow this thread, and I've pondered shooting myself in the foot instead of adding to the thread, but the foot injury seems that it might be worse than jumping in here, so here goes. Someone mentioned the infamous (and seriously outdated) playing in the sandbox idea. This tends to work good when all the people in the theoretical sandbox are friends and neighbors, and have some kind of "interest" in the well being of the sandbox. When someone decides that they can get in the sandbox, mess around, and make a bit of money, then leave the sandbox to never come back, they will. On another note, if they find they can come in the sand box, and bully the other sandbox members and get thier way, they will. The sand- box has gotten huge, and crowded. Rules are an interesting thing. If a rule isn't enforced, the only people who will follow that rule are those who benefit from it (pardon me if I insulted anyone here by insinuating that they would only follow a rule if it benefited them - Let's just assume a clear conscious is benefit enough for some, and not run off on a tangent). If I don't benefit from a rule (or law), and it's not enforced, then what stops me from breaking the rule (especially if there is a large benefit at the end of that tunnel)? When a product has a value, a black market will arise where no "white" market is available. The black market will remain in tact until either the white market is able to supply the required product/service at an equivalent volume and price. If it's easier or cheaper (or both) for me to go to the black market and buy my product, why buy from the white? I would propse that this is in fact happening, and will continue to happen until there is some negetive incentive. Now I don't even imagine to propose any comprehensive solution for this. However let me toss an idea on the table. If in fact ARIN does come into being as an organization supported and funded by an for the commuity of IP users, then those IP users could work in cooperation with ARIN (and the other NIC's) to police the usage of IP's. For example, the NICs could maintain a database online that could monitor the current BGP tables. If the NIC determines that an unallocated IP block is in use, they could then insert a prefix entry into the table, seriously degrading the value of that IP block. This could also be used in a gross way to evaluate usage of prefixes, and unauthorized changes to prefixes. Again, this is only an idea that I toss on the table, but I do stand by the fact that unless there is a negetive incentive, there are those who will do anything that is beneficial to them. Chris A. Icide Sr. Engineer Nap.Net, L.L.C. At 09:38 AM 3/9/97 Time, Joseph T. Klein wrote:

More than a few people have hoarded, sold, and exchanged Class Bs for profit. Such exchanges should be given the same value as the deed to the Brooklyn Bridge and lunar land parcels.

The result of a few gaining money for B space has been to encourage people to horde it. -- From: Joseph T. Klein, Titania Corporation http://www.titania.net E-mail: jtk@titania.net Sent: 09:38:37 CST/CDT 03/09/97

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759