And so it ends...

Thu Feb 3 19:34:03 UTC 2011

----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Curran" <jcurran at arin.net>

> Mr. Rubi -
> 
> I'm sorry if my answer is not clear.
> 
> If your question was: "What is the source of ARIN's legal authority to
> manage the ARIN WHOIS database?"
> 
> then answer is that the database is managed as part of ARIN's mission,
> per policies established by the community.
> 
> If you're trying to ask a different question, I'm more than happy to
> answer, but I'd ask that you be more explicit.

I strongly suspect that his question is actually "Does ARIN have any 
enforceable legal authority to compel an entity to cease using a
specific block of address space, absent a contract?"

I suspect the actual answer will turn out to depend on whether courts
construe that as a property right or not.  The situation is analogous
to that concerning telephone numbers, and that position has changed
over time, in that arena, as I understand it.

Cheers,
-- jra