Nortel, in bankruptcy, sells IPv4 address block for $7.5 million

Fri Mar 25 01:13:46 UTC 2011

Hi, John.

On Mar 24, 2011, at 10:35 AM, John Curran wrote:
>> http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2011/3/23/4778509.html
> 
> Read the comment at the end (attached here for reference).
>> Did you have an opportunity to review the actual docket materials, or is your "coverage" based just on your review of the referenced article? 
>> 
>> The parties have requested approval of a sale order from the Bankruptcy judge. There is a timeline for making filings and a hearing date. There is not an approved sale order at this time, contrary to your blog entry title. 
>> 
>> ARIN has a responsibility to make clear the community-developed policies by which we maintain the ARIN Whois database, and any actual transfer of number resources in compliance with such policies will be reflected in the database. 

At your suggestion, I went to the IGP blog and read the last comment.  I see there is a response by Ernie Rubi to your blog comment, which captures my question so well that (with apologies to Mr Rubi) I'll quote him:

"1) a non-party to a bankruptcy proceeding can intervene in a purported asset sale during said proceeding if they have an interest (i.e property-type) in the asset.  2) ARIN's position is that there is no property interest in IP addresses (LRSA, RSA, etc)."

I would add that ARIN, as a non-profit business league, has no statutory or regulatory authority in this matter.

It's obvious that ARIN, as well as other whois database providers, should pay attention to the proceedings.  But under what premise might ARIN act as a party to this lawsuit?

Cheers,
-Benson