Address space for individuals

Arnold Nipper writes:
> Simon Poole wrote:
...
> > A note on the side: not allowing purchase of IP addresses in other
> > countries would very likely be illegal at least inside the EU including
> > any other restrictions on usage of not nationally obtained IP addresses.
> > 
> 
> I can't see this. Don't take it as buying but paying sort of tax for it.

If it's considered a lease or a purchase dosen't matter, only governments 
raise taxes.

> > The main problem is that if it's a small enough ammount to be painless,
> > it's too expensive to bill for (a one time bill for $10 is clearly not
> > going to make any sense at all).
> > 
> 
> It should be *no* problem to do this for a 2 or 3-year period (one time for
> setup, recurrent for maintaining). This would give a "bill" for about $50 once
> in three years.

Except that going to a system like this has significant implications in
two ways:

	- the fact that you are now selling/leasing IP numbers has 
	  legal consequences (guarentees and liabilities), that you
	  very likely will not be able to avoid (better never allocate
	  an IP number twice :-)).*
	 
	- currently IP number registration is very much "assign and forget",
	  a significant amount of infrastructure and cost is involved if
	  you regulary have to chase IP number owners down.

Simon

* very likely this already applies now, however at least I sleep better
  as long as we're not asking money for the service :-).