----- Original Message ----- > From: "John Curran" <jcur...@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