Nortel, in bankruptcy, sells IPv4 address block for $7.5 million

[bensons at queuefull.net (Benson Schliesser)]

On Mar 24, 2011, at 9:59 PM, Jimmy Hess wrote:

> So I wonder....  rhetorically speaking.. what happens when a bankruptcy
> court accidentally sells something that doesn't actually exist,
> ...
> Because that's what IP addresses are.  Totally worthless unless community
> participants voluntarily route traffic for those IPs to the assignee.

There are a small number of examples, of intellectual property that exists solely by convention and yet has value.  But you're correct: the property structure of IP addresses is ambiguous.  We never had to define it because we had free supply, but times are changing.

> Meaning if MS has an RSA in force, all their resources should be compliant
> with ARIN policies,  and all transfer policies should be followed with regards
> to justified need.

If I recall correctly, the ARIN RSA only applies to resources acquired from ARIN.  It's a contract for ARIN services and doesn't cover legacy blocks, blocks from other RIRs, etc - it doesn't automatically extend ARIN's authority.

On Mar 24, 2011, at 10:34 PM, Marshall Eubanks wrote:

> If ARIN reassigned the space, and Microsoft continued to announce it anyway, would either announcing entity be have enough of a critical mass
> that the conflict wouldn't matter to it  ? 
> 
> I would submit that any address assignments with continual major operational issues arising from assignment conflicts would not be very attractive.  
> 
> I also don't think that that would be good for the Internet. 

I agree.  Which is why ARIN should keep their Whois updated with accurate data, rather than fighting for control of resources beyond RSA scope.

Cheers,
-Benson