[amsat-bb] ORI receives half million dollar grant, and it's only the first.

[Burns Fisher]

Indeed this is fascinating!  Thanks for sharing it, Phil.

I wonder if there are any other non-commercial entities holding big blocks
of addresses.  I suppose it would not be THAT hard to find out.  (I'm
pretty sure HP via Digital holds a whole quad's worth unless they have sold
it off or split it among their various spin-offs since I worked there, but
this obviously a commercial entity).
MIT? Stanford?

73,  Burns WB1FJ

On Fri, Sep 11, 2020 at 8:48 AM Joseph Armbruster via AMSAT-BB <
amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:

> Phil,
>
> I appreciate your summary of all this.  Apparently, I am late to the game
> on this news story, but maybe I am not the only one and hopefully others on
> the -bb learned something from this moment in history.  I know I sure did!!
>
> Joseph Armbruster
> KJ4JIO
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 11, 2020 at 8:25 AM Phil Karn <karn at ka9q.net> wrote:
>
> > On 9/11/20 03:43, Joseph Armbruster wrote:
> > >
> > > So Hank transferred the block of IPs to you, individually?  Was that
> > > the kind of thing where you were all working on a campus together and
> > > it was all word-of-mouth or was it a more formal act on paper?  In
> > > 2010 though, why did Brian need to ask Hank at all?  I mean at that
> > > point, they were your individual property.  I'm surprised whatever
> > > university you were attending did not try to stake a claim to them.
> > > Was there any paper trail regarding the ownership / transfer between
> > > the original 1980 phone call request and ARDC's inheritance?
> >
> > IP addresses were registered somewhat informally in the early days when
> > the Internet was a research project and address blocks were free, but
> > they were regularly published in various Internet documents like RFCs
> > (Requests for Comments). When the Internet grew up, more formal entities
> > like ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers) and ICANN (Internet
> > Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), among others, were created
> > to register who owned what and to make those databases publicly
> > available. At various times, Hank, Brian and I were on all these lists
> > next to network 44, making us each at various times the legal owners.
> >
> > I haven't been a student anywhere since I graduated from CMU with my
> > MSEE in 1979.
> >
> > Since control had been passed informally between us over the years
> > according to whoever was then most willing to do the work, when IPv4
> > addresses began to get scarce we got concerned that someone might try to
> > grab them from us hams. So Brian proposed to create the nonprofit ARDC
> > to legally own network 44. Since Hank's name and mine had also been
> > associated with 44 at various times, Brian thought it important to make
> > sure all of us were OK with it. I for one never thought twice about it.
> > In fact, when it later dawned on us just *how* much this thing might
> > soon be worth, I was even more glad that we'd all agreed.
> >
> > For many years Brian rejected inquiries to buy or even lease part of
> > network 44, but eventually we (the ARDC board) realized that, with IPv6
> > finally being deployed, IPv4 addresses wouldn't be in demand forever. So
> > we authorized him to seek a buyer of the upper 1/4 that had never been
> > used. I never quite let myself believe that Brian would pull it off. But
> > he did, and now we have a pretty good endowment to do neat things with
> > in ham radio, open source and STEM education.
> >
> > What really ticks me off, and always will, is that Brian had the vision
> > and did all the hard work yet only lived long enough to see our first
> > two grants (TAPR student scholarships and the ARISS power supply
> > project).  Fate has a truly wicked sense of humor.
> >
> > Phil
> >
> >
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions
> expressed
> are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
> AMSAT-NA.
> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
> Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
>