BGP Security and PKI Hierarchies

Tue Nov 29 10:27:00 UTC 2005

> > >The fees are not charged for past services that were
> > >received for free, only for future services.

>    i believe Michael is extrapolating his ideal and
>    not the actual practice at RIRs.

Not at all. Past services are anything that was received
for free in the past. Future services are anything that
is received as a normal paid member of ARIN. The ARIN
membership fee is determined by the size of the address
allocation that was received in the past, but it is not
a payment for past services.

Why is this so hard for people to understand?

If I received a copy of Windows 3.1 for free then I 
can use it forever without paying. But if I want
to get a copy of Windows XP, then I must pay the
normal fee for Windows XP. Microsoft will not charge
me an additional fee over and above the normal fee
that everyone else pays for XP.

Many people registered .com domain names for free.
Then one day, there was an annual fee. However, 
nobody was charged an annual fee for the PAST YEARS
in which they had had free use of their .com domain
name. The level of the playing field was raised, but
it remained a level playing field.

--Michael Dillon