IP addresses are now assets

John Curran jcurran at arin.net
Tue Dec 6 03:09:50 UTC 2011


On Dec 2, 2011, at 1:55 AM, Paul Graydon wrote:

> On 12/1/2011 7:20 PM, John Curran wrote:
>> Wayne -
>> 
>> Your subject line (IP addresses are now assets) could mislead folks,
>> so I'd advise waiting to review the actual sale order once approved by
>> the court before making summary conclusions.
>> 
>> ARIN holds that IP address space is not property but is managed as a
>> public resource.  Address holders may have certain rights (such as the
>> right to be the registrant of the address block, the right to transfer the
>> registration, etc.) but these rights intersect with additional rights to the
>> same address blocks which are held by the community (such as the right
>> of visibility to the public portion of registrations).  The registry policies
>> (set by the community via open and transparent processes) govern the
>> intersection and application of these rights.
>> 
>> For this reason, ARIN works with parties transferring their rights in IP
>> address space to make sure that the documents reflect that sales of
>> rights are subject to the transfer policies in the region, including in this
>> particular case.  A party may transfer their rights to IP addresses, and
>> such rights may have value to an estate, but this does not make the
>> IP addresses "property" per se.
>> 
>> Thanks!
>> /John
>> 
> 
> Why'd you have to spoil the fun?  You're supposed to wait a few days, let the pointless righteous fury build up and then step in and try to do the firefighting thing.  It's must have been all but a month since the last time this flared up, it's surely about time it flared up again?  Wouldn't want anyone to miss out on the fun ;)

That's okay...  it will happen anyway. ;-)

For those who are following this matter, there are some more complete
articles now (including pointers to the court documents filed) - 

  <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/05/borders_flogs_ipv4_addys/>
  <http://domainincite.com/docs/borders-cerner-ipv4.pdf>

FYI,
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
ARIN



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