[address-policy-wg] Enabling Methods for Reallocation of IPv4 Resources

At 12:20 AM 12-03-08 +0000, michael.dillon at bt.com wrote:

> > "Expired per the 1st of Januari 2007"
> >
> > The following one is apparently still valid though:
> > http://www.st-ab.nl/wetten/1064_Wet_op_het_financieel_toezicht_Wft.htm
>
>Yes, the little details are important.
>
> > There is no mention at all about virtual property or the
> > 'owning' of numbers though. A zipcode is no property, nor is
> > a bankaccount number etc.
>
>Nobody has seriously suggested that IP addresses are property or
>that transfer policies would change the ownership of IP addresses.
>Instead, people are talking about buying and selling contracts
>which give the right to use a specific IP address allocation.
>This is a lot like a commodities contract, for instance you
>can buy a contract for the delivery of a ton of copper, and
>then sell that contract to somebody else. You never actually
>own a ton of copper because you are buying and selling contracts.
>There are many varieties of contract like this, usually called
>derivatives (except for insurance and re-insurance). All of
>these contracts are covered by the MiFID rules and are regulated
>by national regulators such as the FAS in the UK.

If the wording in RIPE stated the word "lease", why wouldn't that work?  A 
customer comes and "leases" IP space from RIPE for the duration of their 
contract with RIPE (membership dues, fulfillment of rules, etc.)  When 
their membership ends, the lease is broken and the IP space returns to RIPE.

I bring your attention to:
http://www.ripe.net/rs/news/global-ipv6-assign-2001-12-22.html

4.1.  Address space not to be considered property

    It is contrary to the goals of this document and is not in the
    interests of the Internet community as a whole for address space to
    be considered freehold property.

    The global IPv6 policies in this document are based upon the
    understanding that address space is lease-licensed for use rather
    than owned. All Internet Registries are expected to manage address
    space operations correctly in accordance with this principle.

    According to this policy, IP addresses will be allocated on a lease-
    license basis, with such lease-licenses to be of specific limited
    duration of normally one year.  Conditions of a lease-license have
    specific conditions applied at the start or renewal of the lease.

    Lease-licenses will typically be renewed automatically at the end of
    their duration when the following two conditions are met:
     a) The original basis of the allocation remains valid.
     b) Registration requirements relating to that allocation have been
       fulfilled at the time of renewal

    However, when a lease-license is renewed, the new lease-license will
    be evaluated under and governed by the applicable resource allocation
    and renewal policies in place at the time of renewal.

    Changes to the conditions of current lease-licences shall be subject
    to a definite period of notice, except in exceptional circumstances
    recognized by a consensus of the Internet community.

    As address space is not owned, and consistent with the desire to
    avoid excessive fragmentation of address space, it may become
    necessary in extreme circumstances to renumber assignments. Such
    renumbering will only be undertaken after extensive consultation with
    the Internet community.
----------------------------------------
Unfortunately, RIPE has never used the word "lease" after 2001.  The word 
"lease" was removed when the doc became policy:
http://www.ripe.net/docs/ipv6policy.html
Also the entire last paragraph was removed including the critical "As 
address space is not owned...".

I have no clue as to whether anything similar was done for IPv4.

-Hank