On 25/03/11 10:01, Erin Salmon wrote:
Surely IANA/ARIN/whoever could stop this sort of thing just by raising their hand? That would be idiocy, frankly.
I cringe every time I see someone saying the IP address space has run out or will run out. There is a whole third of the available, usable address space out there that is not advertised on the Internet. Dark. Unused. Available for re-allocation. The key to releasing that space is for the holders to have an incentive to do so. That means selling it. IP address space is a scarce resource in economic terms, and that has been recognised for a very long time. A market for IP addresses already exists, regardless of whether the RIRs choose to try to block it, ignore it or get with the programme and facilitate it. I wrote all this up a wee while ago here: http://www.don.nz.net/wordpress/?p=82 -- don