ARIN-2011-1: ARIN Inter-RIR Transfers - Last Call (expires in one week)

Thu Nov 10 16:59:35 UTC 2011

Bill,

On Nov 10, 2011, at 5:48 AM, William Herrin wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 8:28 AM, Randy Bush <randy at psg.com> wrote:
>> i am sure the americans who think all address space should righfully be
>> theirs can dream up paranoid scenarios for anything.  but dear canute,
>> the tide is coming, get over it or get wet.
> You're fortunate that you speak for a minority.

I don't think Randy speaks for anyone but himself. Some may, however, agree with him.

> If you didn't, we'd
> tell the bunch of you to go to hell instead of valiantly seeking to
> improve the situation in which APNIC finds itself.

Seriously?

It is this sort of attitude that resulted in me giving up in disgust with the whole RIR circus.  Well that and a curious note from ARIN counsel (at the direction of ARIN's board) to my then corporate counsel purportedly "expressing concern" about statements I made in a personal capacity on NANOG. Quite amusing, actually, but still disgusting.

A tiny dose of reality: 
- The Internet (and world population as a whole) is growing most rapidly in the Asia/Pacific region. 
- There are companies who demand IPv4 addresses for which the combined yearly budgets of all the RIRs amounts to little more than a small fraction of what those companies spend on their lawyers alone.
- APNIC no longer has IPv4 addresses to meet that demand.
- There now at least 4 different organizations offering IPv4 addresses for sale (addrex.net, kalorama.com, tradeipv4.com, ipv4marketgroup.com) who are now participating in an estimated at $6 - $8 Billion market (and that's just legacy space).

And you believe the couple of hundred folks who participate in ARIN are going to stand in the way of those business interests?  I might gently suggest it would probably be more useful to figure out how the new market players and the "legacy" RIRs can coexist in a way that doesn't do severe damage to the Internet than it is to discuss how to rearrange the deck chairs in ever more intricate designs in order to try to maintain unjustifiable monopolies.

I might suggest that but as I said, I gave up in disgust.  Tell King Canute's advisors I said "hi".

Regards,
-drc