[address-policy-wg] On use of the word "sold" (was: 2012-01 New Policy Proposal (Inter-RIR IPv4 Address Transfers))

On Apr 5, 2012, at 10:16 AM, John Curran wrote:
>> well, at first, just to state the obvious once more
>> 
>> a) For RIR-managed resources...
>> 
>> ...this is basically true. 
>> 
>> b) For pre-RIR resources...
>> 
>> ...RIR policies cannot be applied. Anyone can really sell this stuff, they seem to really own those.
> 
> That may be regional difference (or not), as in the ARIN region 
> we run a single registry with a single set of policies which 
> apply to all resources.  

Which is, of course, not particularly relevant to the question of whether resources can be bought or sold.  It is only relevant to whether or not ARIN will update their registry to reflect reality in their "single registry".

It would seem ARIN has decided that accuracy of registration data is secondary to conformance to "consensus" policy.  I hope RIPE does not follow ARIN down that particular path as such an approach would appear to strongly encourage the proliferation of registration information databases which will undoubtedly result in challenges in network operations.  I do not believe registration information databases should be used as a weapon to try to force compliance to policy.

Regards,
-drc