ARIN fee structure (was: re: 2749 routes AT RISK - Re: TIMELY/IMPORTANT)

Wed Apr 6 17:32:30 UTC 2022

On Wed, Apr 6, 2022 at 4:48 AM John Curran <jcurran at arin.net> wrote:
> On 5 Apr 2022, at 11:57 PM, William Herrin <bill at herrin.us> wrote:
>> My objection lies in having ARIN's RSA adhere to my address block
>> overall. I may feel differently about ARIN next year than I do this
>> year but once I've signed that RSA, well, that's just too bad. I now
>> have obligations to ARIN, some of them on shifting sand, and if I
>> don't fulfill them the addresses are gone.
>
> That’s an Interesting perspective - thank you for sending.   It is true that both you and ARIN have obligations once you sign an RSA, but that’s true of any standardized agreement that you enter – standard agreements are found everywhere in life and are enforceable if applied uniformly with reasonable terms.

Hi John,

Why should I need an agreement with ARIN on the disposition of
addresses which are already mine? Offer me an agreement confined to
the things I don't have, like RPKI, and you'll empower me to do my
part in making BGP a safer place without demanding I take on new risk.

> The part of your statement I don’t understand is that some of your obligations to ARIN are "on shifting sand"… If anything, you’ve got more protections in place regarding your ARIN RSA agreement than likely in most other standard agreement contexts (although it is true that we at ARIN don’t exactly emphasize these aspects as often as we might…)

Compliance with ARIN public policy is incorporated by reference. ARIN
policy shifts. ARIN business practices such as the fee structure are
incorporated by reference. The business practices shift. Indeed, the
fee structure was rearranged last year in a way that undermined one of
the central tenets of the LRSA. To the consternation of some of the
folks who had signed the LRSA.

The RSA requires the registrant to comply not just with the conditions
at the time of signing but also with the ones which develop later. And
tough luck if the registrant doesn't like them.

I'm on the same shifting sands with nearly every company I do business
with. But in each of their cases, it's a trivial matter to switch to a
competitor if I don't like next year's deal. I have no such risk
mitigation in my interactions with ARIN. Perhaps if I was a
multinational company doing business in multiple regions but alas I am
not.

Regards,
Bill Herrin

-- 
William Herrin
bill at herrin.us
https://bill.herrin.us/