[AfriNIC-rpd] Re: Proposal: Reclamation of allocated but unrouted IPv4 addresses.

[David Conrad]

Jackson,

On Feb 10, 2011, at 6:20 AM, Jackson Muthili wrote:
>>> When community has decided by way of policy, what will Level3, GE,
>>> Ford et al do? sue? who?
>> My guess is they'd simply ignore a policy that negatively impacts them.
> They'd ignore till the policy is implemented. If implementation
> involved revocation of addresses, they'd do something.
> If rpki is adopted, it will be another area where they'll need the RIR
> to issue a route origin authorization.

I'm guessing that if an RIR invalidated a legacy allocation in the way you suggest (RPKI or not), the 'owner' of that legacy allocation would react in a way that would likely not be survivable by the RIR.  The organizations we're talking about individually have more lawyers on staff than all the RIRs have staff combined and they probably spend more on paperclips than the combined budgets of the RIRs.

In my view, the RIRs are not regulatory bodies, rather they are primarily venues in which folks can meet to form a consensus on address management policies.  The secretariats of the RIRs then implement those policies. I have some skepticism that the holders of legacy space would join in a consensus that would have significant negative impact on their operations. 

Regards,
-drc