And the madness begins.... IPv4

[Mike O'Dell]

It's called "Mark to Market" and it's going to happen,
if not in this case then soon.

the bankruptcy judge ruling is going to be very interesting

what i believe will happen is that IPv4 addresses WILL be declared
"property" for the purpose of the bankruptcy proceedings. I think
the judge will have little choice but to rule that way with someone (MS)
standing there willing to write a big check to the benefit of the
creditors. It will likely become MS's problem to *use* the addresses
they bought - but then if ARIN was to make the mistake of assigning
them to someone else, MS would likely have basis for a tortuous 
interference suit against ARIN and possibly anti-trust action against
both ARIN and ICANN. their lawyers will load birdshot into the 16" guns
and fire at will - they will certainly hit something, and probably
enough to make it very unpleasant. MS will point to the bankruptcy
judge ruling as establishing the addresses as property (or maybe
even intellectual property!) and they paid good money for them.
whether Nortel had the right to sell them is not MS's fault, unless
somebody could establish they were stolen property.

this is all going to come to a head and before it's over, the geeks
are going to get a painful lesson in "He who has the gold makes the 
rules."  or at least "He who hires the most and best lawyers *probably*
gets what they want."

unfortunate, but the way of the world

sorry to be cynical

	-mo


On 3/25/11 8:58 PM, Robert E. Seastrom wrote:
>
> Iain McFadyen<mcfadyenusa at yahoo.com>  writes:
>
>> http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/nortel-sells-microsoft-ipv4-addresses-for-7-5m-24885
>
> It is actually a lot more complex than this article states.  There is
> a "transfer market" for IP addresses (with which I'm entirely too
> familiar because I was part of the team that crafted it in ARIN-land).
> The recipient has to justify them just as if they were getting new
> addresses from the RIR (in this case ARIN).
>
> Based on the price paid and current stocks of IPv4 addresses at ARIN
> (it is only the central IANA free pool that is "run out", not the
> various RIRs'), I would say that someone at Microsoft has been
> hoodwinked into thinking that they would somehow have an easier time
> of getting a certain amount of address space if they went this route
> than if they went directly to the registry.
>
> I've read the Nortel sale motion documents and they neglect to mention
> that addresses are *not* property, but are assigned on a needs-basis
> and are subject to revocation.  A quote from RFC2050:
>
>     The IANA reserves the right to invalidate any IP assignments once it
>     is determined the the requirement for the address space no longer
>     exists.  In the event of address invalidation, reasonable efforts
>     will be made by the appropriate registry to inform the organization
>     that the addresses have been returned to the free pool of IPv4
>     address space.
>
> Further they attempt to get the bankruptcy court to override RFC2050
> section 4.7:
>
>     7.  The transfer of IP addresses from one party to another must be
>         approved by the regional registries.  The party trying to obtain
>         the IP address must meet the same criteria as if they were
>         requesting an IP address directly from the IR.
>
> I think that it is fair to expect that absent further justification on
> Microsoft's part, information exposing the fallacy of this transaction
> will be presented to the bankruptcy court, and counsel for the
> debtor-in-possession will be reproached for engaging in the digital
> equivalent of trading in swiped milk crates.
>
> -r
>
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