[ncc-services-wg] RIPE tasks

Axel,

On Wed, Aug 13, 2003 at 04:42:55PM +0200, Axel Pawlik wrote:
>
> Scarcity of IPv4 addresses is just one very
> obvious, self-perpetuating myth that needs to be killed.

I am afraid that not all your membership agrees with this.

The very fact that one has to become member of an organization with
significant fees, that one has to go to training courses in order to
understand how to get addressess and that one has to understand all
kind of policies before one gets the actual ipv4 addresses that one
needs means that they are in fact a scarce resource.

>From the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

  scarce adjective

  not easy to find or obtain:
  Food and clean water were becoming scarce.
  scarce resources

ipv4 addresses certainly qualify as 'not easy to obtain'. One has to
do considerable effort to get some and even then, one hardly ever gets
the amount that one would really like to have.

Businesses and isps would be able to cut a lot of cost if they could
get larger allocations, waste more space and be more relaxed in their
ipv4 address inventory management. We cannot afford to do that because
the resource that you are managing is indeed a scarce resource.

The only reason that the RIPE NCC is needed is exactly for the reason
that ipv4 addresses are a scarce resource. There might be enough for
them for the near future if we keep rationing the distibution as we do
now but we would certainly run out rather quickly if your organization
would just give away ipv4 addresses to the people/organizations that
ask for them.

As I understand it, your core business is the management of a scarce
resource and I don't see any reason why you should spend time killing
a 'self-perpetuating myth' that is not a myth at all.

David K.
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