[147088] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: IP addresses are now assets
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Curran)
Fri Dec 2 00:22:00 2011
From: John Curran <jcurran@arin.net>
To: "Michael R. Wayne" <wayne@staff.msen.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2011 05:20:39 +0000
Cc: NANOG list <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
Wayne -=20
Your subject line (IP addresses are now assets) could mislead folks,=20
so I'd advise waiting to review the actual sale order once approved by
the court before making summary conclusions. =20
ARIN holds that IP address space is not property but is managed as a=20
public resource. Address holders may have certain rights (such as the=20
right to be the registrant of the address block, the right to transfer the=
=20
registration, etc.) but these rights intersect with additional rights to th=
e=20
same address blocks which are held by the community (such as the right
of visibility to the public portion of registrations). The registry polici=
es=20
(set by the community via open and transparent processes) govern the=20
intersection and application of these rights.
For this reason, ARIN works with parties transferring their rights in IP=20
address space to make sure that the documents reflect that sales of
rights are subject to the transfer policies in the region, including in thi=
s=20
particular case. A party may transfer their rights to IP addresses, and
such rights may have value to an estate, but this does not make the=20
IP addresses "property" per se.
Thanks!
/John
John Curran
President and CEO
ARIN
