Thus spake <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Once this subject took off on nanog, I have been
oversaturated with people trying to "sell" me ip space. I
have had offers for several /16's for 10,000.00 each that are
no longer in use by the companies who "own" lol them.
It seems to me that this nicely illustrates a major problem with the
current system. Here we have large blocks of IP space that, by their
own rules, ARIN should take back. It all sounds nice on paper, but
clearly there is a hole in the system whereby ARIN doesn't know and
apparently has no way of figuring out that the space is no longer in
use. It makes me wonder just how much space like that there is out
there artifically increasing IP scarcity. I don't know what the
solution is, but the way things currently work it seems like if you
can
justify a block today, it's yours forever even if you stop actively
using it. Maybe allowing for some kind of IP market would cut down on
that type of hoarding -- you would at the very least change the type
of
value those subnets have.
ARIN's policies allow for grandfathering of allocations/assignments made
prior to ARIN's establishment at least in part because they'd be on
shaky ground legally trying to revoke them for noncompliance. It's not
like those folks would willingly sign an RSA that would immediately
result in losing their resources. And the community has, so far, agreed
with this because the problem is at least getting no worse; it's
manageable to make allowances for a fixed or shrinking number of legacy
address space holders.
However, I do recall that ISI ran (runs?) a program trying to contact
folks who had legacy allocations and see if they were willing to return
the parts they didn't need. Bill Manning reported on the progress a few
times, and apparently a large number of those orgs either no longer
existed or were willing to give back what they didn't need. I think
this approach is acceptable to everyone, though I'd like to see more
stats on what's been done and a more official sanction for the work.
Also, IIRC, folks who have legacy allocations/assignments can't get more
until their existing space is up to current standards, so it's not like
they're getting a free ride on the old space _and_ getting new space.
All we have to complain about are the folks that have so much they'll
never need more, and those are relatively few in reality. I'm pretty
sure the same situation exists for non-legacy space holders; even if you
comply at the time of the request, if you later fall below the standards
you're safe -- but you can't get more until you're back up to the
standards.
All in all, the process is decent, and it has community support. Ideal?
No, but nothing ever is when lawyers get involved.
S
Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking
