[44-reform] ARIN dispute submitted

[Bryan Fields]

The below was submitted to ARIN early this morning or late last night
depending on your time zone.

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The text of the submitted report is included below.

If you did not submit a fraud report, please contact us at ARIN Hostmaster
<hostmaster at arin.net>
or +1.703.227.0660.

Sincerely,

Registration Services Department
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)
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Report received and needing confirmation:

I am writing as an amateur radio operator. My callsign is VE3HW and I am
licensed in Canada. Since the 44/8 network was assigned for amateur radio use,
I am a stakeholder in it, along with many other operators worldwide.

The sale of 44.192.0.0/16 as reflected in the ARIN and IANA on July 19th was
not legitimate. The seller, Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), does
not own the resource and has no right to sell it. The sale is therefore
fraudulent.

The 44/8 network was set aside in 1981 [1] for use of amateur radio
experiments. Since that time, volunteers have operated a registry and
allocated numbers to individual operators and clubs out of this address space
for amateur radio use only.

The situation is exactly analogous to radio spectrum where amateur radio
operators have been allocated parts of the spectrum by international agreement
via the ITU and national regulation by the national bodies (FCC, Industry
Canada, etc). The role of the ARRL in the US and the RAC in Canada is to
coordinate the use of the spectrum, so they make band-plans, coordinating and
allocating spectrum for specific uses.

Some time in 2011 the registry, Amateur Radio Digital Communications
incorporated itself as a California not for profit company. Yesterday, a
change was made in the ARIN database reflecting the sale of a portion of this
address space, 44.192/10 to Amazon. This was done with no discussion
whatsoever with any of the stakeholders (amateur radio operators worldwide,
national bodies such as the ARRL, the RAC, the RSGB).

The analogy to radio spectrum allocation was certainly the original intent of
the allocation by IANA in 1981. When the regulators emerged for the radio
spectrum, a portion of it was set aside for amateur experiment. When the
Internet appeared with a similar resource, a portion of address space was set
aside for amateur experiment. In both cases the use is regulated and
coordinated. In neither case does any individual or organisation own the
resource. In neither case can any individual or organisation sell the resource.

In particular, ARDC has been coordinating allocations from the 44/8 network,
making sure that they are used for amateur radio purposes according to the
original mandate [3]. This does not mean that ARDC owns the network and does
not give them the right to sell it.

It is probable that 44/8 is more address space than the amateur radio
community needs nowadays. If that is the case, it should be discussed publicly
and transparently among the stakeholders, and a portion of the addresses
should be returned to IANA who can then allocate to the RIRs.

Please note that I will be travelling overseas until the beginning of August
and not reachable by telephone until then. Email will continue to work.

William Waites VE3HW
-- 
Bryan Fields

727-409-1194 - Voice
http://bryanfields.net