[address-policy-wg] IPv4 waiting list policy

Hi Marco & APWG colleagues

Thanks for the response Marco. Some of my questions below suggest there may
be problems with the Transfer Stats and IPv4 Allocation Policy. These
questions are not really for the RIPE NCC to answer, except where there are
legal implications, but for this WG to consider...

On Thu, 16 Dec 2021 at 16:57, Marco Schmidt <mschmidt at ripe.net> wrote:

> Hello Denis,
>
> Thank you for your questions. Allow me to answer as many as I can right
> now. As you indicated, getting the data for some of the requests in your
> email from 9 December would require quite some time and effort. Considering
> that Registry Services is currently in the busiest time of the year, I
> would prefer to first identify if this data would really be beneficial for
> the ongoing discussion about the IPv4 waiting list policy and potential
> policy proposal.
>

It was only for background information and isn't likely to change the
discussion very much. So if you are very busy don't worry about those
numbers. My own analysis is likely to be far more explosive. I am still
working on the details...


> As for your comments about consolidations, I would like to clarify that
> the RIPE NCC uses this term when a member consolidates some of their LIR
> accounts into another LIR account. When an LIR receives resources that are
> restricted by a holding period, those resources must be kept in that LIR
> account until the holding period has passed. After that 24-month period,
> these members usually decide to consolidate their LIR accounts, including
> their resources. If a company were to take over one of its child companies,
> this would be processed by the RIPE NCC as a merger of two different legal
> bodies.
>

So in a merger/acquisition two legal entities, each with one LIR account,
becomes one legal entity with two LIR accounts. A consolidation is when one
legal entity has two LIR accounts and closes one of those LIR accounts,
transfering it's resources to the remaining LIR account. Is that correct?
When a legal entity opens two LIR accounts does the legal entity become two
legally distinct RIPE NCC members?

With a consolidation, is the 'movement' of a resource from the closed LIR
to another LIR operated by the same legal entity considered as a transfer?
According to section 2.0 of the Transfer Policy the movement of an
allocated resource from one RIPE NCC member to another RIPE NCC member is a
transfer. So it looks to me that a consolidation IS a transfer and
therefore SHOULD be documented in the Transfer Stats? But I don't see any
transfers listed as CONSOLIDATION. Why not?

In the IPv4 Allocation Policy (ripe-733), section '3.0 Goals of the
Internet Registry System', point 3 says:
"Fairness: Public IPv4 address space must be fairly distributed to the End
Users operating networks."
Given the controversy over companies setting up multiple LIRs to (un)fairly
acquire the last bits of IPv4 addresses available through the RIPE NCC
being discussed in this thread, in the interests of fairness, as well as
openness and transparency, should consolidation 'transfers' be included in
the Transfer Stats?

With the current /24 allocation policy there is a condition that these
allocations cannot be transferred for at least 24 months. Are there any
conditions/expectations on who can use this address space or who can
administratively and technically control these addresses? Is it acceptable
that within these 24 months, a separate legal entity takes over both
administrative and technical control of this allocated address space and
manages the assignment of it? So the legal entity that received the
allocation is just a 'shell' that exists only to satisfy the 24 month no
transfer condition.

Now I want to ask a very specific legal question. In the Transfer Policy,
section '2.1 Transfer Requirements' says:
"The original resource holder remains responsible for an Internet number
resource until the transfer to the receiving party is completed."
So in the example I gave earlier, Company ABC acquired company XYZ (and
presumably all it's assets including the LIR it operated) on 2 December.
According to the Chamber of Commerce, company XYZ was deregistered on 5
December. So it no longer existed as a legal entity after 5 December. The
Transfer Stats state the transfer of the resources from XYZ to ABC occured
on 23 December. According to the Transfer Policy section '4.0 Transfer
Statistics' says the published date is "The date each resource was
transferred". So who was legally responsible for those IP resources between
5 and 23 December?

cheers
denis
co-chair DB-WG
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