[AfriNIC-rpd] Legacy IPv4 addresses

[Graham Beneke]

On 04/05/2011 21:51, sm+afrinic at elandsys.com wrote:
> There seems to be some confusing about legacy IPv4 addresses. Would it
> be possible for AfriNIC to provide some information about the following:
>
> (a) Which existing policies cover legacy IPv4 addresses?

I think that the first bit of confusion relates to what legacy addresses 
are:

I believe that the globally accepted term refers to addresses that were 
assigned prior to the RIR systems. These would be addresses that were 
issued without any kind of formal contract or agreement. Unless an 
organisation has signed some kind of subsequent agreement, AfriNIC and 
the community would have no legal say in what is done with these addresses.

These allocations are scarce in the AfriNIC region - limited to a 
handful of Academic institutions and an even smaller number of 
commercial operators. I believe that the majority of these allocations 
belong to South African organisations.

There is the second kind of allocation that I have heard referred to as 
'legacy' and these are RIR allocations that were made to organisations 
in Africa prior to the establishment of AfriNIC. These allocations were 
made to members of a particular RIR under some kind of membership 
agreement. This existing membership was then transferred to AfriNIC when 
the organisation was formed and the relevant administrative functions 
were also transferred.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer ;-) this is simple my summary of the 
situation.

-- 
Graham Beneke