ARIN has published a commentary written by its legal counsel and two affiliates regarding the transfer of IPv4 addresses in the ARIN region. The article, published in the Bloomberg BNA’s Bankruptcy Law Reporter, outlines the contract language that ARIN suggests buyers and sellers of IPv4 addresses use in their contracts to ensure a smooth and expedient transaction.
The commentary certainly outlines ARIN’s point of view of the legal and contract issues which exist regarding the transfers. While some (e.g. legacy address holders) likely will disagree with some of the assertions in the commentary, this commentary does lay out ARIN’s stance, such as IP addresses are not property but “interest in the registration right to IP Numbers and the IP Numbers.” While some organizations might choose to use the courts to assert alternate methods of transfer, those entities who generally would like a more expedient transfer process will likely benefit from following the advice contained within the article.
ARIN: Suggested Guidance for Bankruptcy Trustees, Debtors-in-Possession, and Receivers
Milton Mueller of the Internet Governance Project has also published on his blog a response to this guide.