AS Numbers unused/sitting for long periods of time

Wed Jan 3 16:25:12 UTC 2018

On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 2:16 AM, Jimmy Hess <mysidia at gmail.com> wrote:

> EXISTING  number resources in ARIN region in particular are serviced under
> the RSA contract that include terms specifically informs the end user that
> ARIN is disclaiming itself from having any ability  or authority to
> revoke any unused resources or cancel any services for lack of use.
>

Hi Jimmy,

That's not entirely correct. In this case there are two groups of AS
numbers held by ARIN:

1. AS numbers held under a registration services agreement. ARIN has annual
contact with these organizations in the form of a bill which, if they don't
pay, eventually results in deregistration of the resource. No change to
policy or process is necessary for this to happen.

2. Legacy AS numbers assigned by the registrars that existed prior to ARIN.
ARIN asserts that they have the authority to deregister these resources,
but the legal situation is murky. No explicit contract covering those AS
numbers exists between ARIN and the registrants.

ARIN's authority to refuse action outside of a contract has been only
weakly tested in court: all cases were settled prior to the court ruling or
the court ruled on some basis other than ARIN's authority over number
resources. For example, the Nortel case was settled when Microsoft agreed
to sign a negotiated contract with ARIN while the Kremen case was thrown
out based on the statute of limitations: he waited too long after ARIN's
refusal to sue.

ARIN's authority to act absent a contract has never been tested in court.

And in fact ARIN has never unilaterally deregistered a legacy resource.

Practically speaking, this means that any action to revoke allegedly
abandoned legacy resources places ARIN at legal risk. The prospective gain
from such action would have to exceed the risk.

Regards,
Bill Herrin

-- 
William Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>