Can a customer take IP's with them?

David Schwartz davids at webmaster.com
Thu Jun 24 00:25:45 UTC 2004



> additionally, how is the ISP to account to ARIN for this block should
> they go back for more space?

	They show ARIN a copy of the TRO. Really.

> there is a widely accepted understanding of how this is all supposed
> to work, and if the ex-NAC customer succeeds in gaining this TRO,
> and it becomes a pattern across the industry, then everybody's
> connectivity, router tables, and support budget will likely suffer.

	Unfortunately, courts are generally not impressed by the "if everybody did
it" argument. In each case, they'll look at the actual incrementlay harm the
TRO will do in that particular case. I do agree, however, that it's very
important that if these cases do come to court, the ISPs win as many of them
as possible. Each loss makes the next loss easier.

	The reason I'm pointing out which strategies are unlikely to work is not
because I hope they won't work but because I want him to make sure to
emphasize the strongest possible arguments. IMO, these are:

	1) The emergency is of the customer's own creation. He had plenty of time
to renumber and didn't.

	2) There is no significant harm in renumbering immediately. Techniques such
as 1-to-1 NAT exist for exactly this purpose.

	3) DNS creates a portable namespace, so there's no legitimate portability
issue here. This is not like bringing your phone number with you when you
change providers but like bringing your phone *line* with you when you move
across the country.

	I would not try to argue that it harms you significantly to allow them to
continue using the IP space. I just don't see any honest way to show that
there's real harm. Perhaps in your specific situation there's such a way.
But defending abstract principles about router table sizes isn't likely to
work. The court will weigh the harm of the one advertisement.

	Don't forget, though, the customer can't get the TRO, regardless of the
balance of the hardships, unless they're likely to be entitled to it. So
look into the details of how the contract got terminated, and if it's
because of the customer's own actions, they're not likely to be entitled to
the relief the TRO seeks to get anyway.

	DS





More information about the NANOG mailing list