[ih] Some Questions over IPv4 Ownership

[Jorge Amodio]

> But then, I am not a laywer, only an elderly Obstetrician (though, to
> quote Eric "Otter" Stratton: "What's the difference?" (Yes, I know,
> wishful thinking :-)-O)), but

The issue is that for years attorneys have been trying (some of them
with certain degree of success) to get orange juice out of rocks, take
for example the DNS that was designed as a replacement as a more
effective resolution mechanism than the old HOSTS.TXT file, which
obviously didn't have a chance to scale at all.

In the early years there was not such concept of "ownership", the
WHOIS database was very consistent and a good resource to find contact
information if there was any issue related to a particular domain.
With the dramatic growth in number of eyeballs driven by "the web" and
the good senses of IP (Intellectual Property) and trademark lawyers
sniffing huge amounts of business, plus the seasonal opportunist get
rich fast spirit, a new ecosystem was created and now the DNS became a
giant billboard where everybody is fighting to get a premier space and
a global struggle is going on  to determine who is the "owner" and has
rights to the billboard.

This ecosystem actually is today a several billions worth industry
that has its own lobbyists and that if we stop paying attention soon
will derail all efforts to sustain that a bottom-up multistakeholder
process based on cooperation and collaboration is the right model for
Internet Governance.

As the IPv4 address space gets depleted, it will not take too long for
some people to start squeezing the rocks again.

I'm not against of people making money, but we need to do a better job
to remove the "ownership" claim on Internet numbers and name
resources.

My .02
Jorge