Re: And so it ends...

[Jay Ashworth <jra () baylink com>]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Curran" <jcurran () arin net>

> Mr. Rubi -
>
> I'm sorry if my answer is not clear.
>
> If your question was: "What is the source of ARIN's legal authority to
> manage the ARIN WHOIS database?"
>
> then answer is that the database is managed as part of ARIN's mission,
> per policies established by the community.
>
> If you're trying to ask a different question, I'm more than happy to
> answer, but I'd ask that you be more explicit.

I strongly suspect that his question is actually "Does ARIN have any 
enforceable legal authority to compel an entity to cease using a
specific block of address space, absent a contract?"

I suspect the actual answer will turn out to depend on whether courts
construe that as a property right or not.  The situation is analogous
to that concerning telephone numbers, and that position has changed
over time, in that arena, as I understand it.

Cheers,
-- jra