prop-147: Historical Resources Management

According to the EC resolution of 22 February 2021, historical resource holders in the APNIC region would need to become Members or Non-Members by 1 January 2023 to continue to receive registration services. After this date, historical resource registrations will no longer be published in the APNIC Whois Database, and the resources will be placed in reserved status.

This proposal suggests that custodians can claim historical resources that have been marked as reserved within 12 months of the date they were marked as reserved. After 12 months, these resources will be placed in the free pool for re-delegation.

The proposal also suggests that historical resources marked as reserved and/or reclaimed by APNIC due to account closures will lose their ‘historical’ status and become ‘current’ resources for re-delegation.

Jordi Palet Martinez

prop-147-v001

prop-147-v002

prop-147-v003

In other RIRs legacy resources lose their legacy status when the RSA is signed (upon receiving other resources), so they become under the regular monitoring. In other cases, there is nothing specified by policies.

Version 001

APNIC understands that this proposal suggests that historical IPv4 resources be justified and claimed, or that they be made available to other organizations that require them.

APNIC also notes the deletion of Section 4.2.1. Recovery of unused historical resources. As reported to the community at APNIC 50, this may no longer be applicable once the project is completed, possibly by the end of 2022.

Recommendations:

For consistency of language and to align with the current policy document, the reference to “available pool” could be changed to “free pool”. Also the reference to “original resource holder” and “original custodians” could be changed to “custodian/s”.

Given the number of uncontactable resource holders, the 12-month option would be safer for APNIC to implement, as some historical resource holders may not be aware of the changes to the treatment of historical resources until they are placed into reserved status on January 1, 2023.

Clarification:

This proposal only addresses historical resources that have not been claimed by January 1st, 2023. It does not specify what happens to the historical resources that are claimed, but the Member or Non-Member account is not renewed after January 1, 2023. These resources will be considered historical and may remain in reserve status indefinitely.

Version 002

The Secretariat thanks the authors and the community for taking the impact assessment clarifications into consideration. We have no further clarifications.

Version 003

Versions 1 and 2 of this proposal were first discussed at APNIC 54.

APNIC notes that this proposal intends to clarify what to do with historical resources that will no longer be published in the APNIC Whois Database and will be placed in reserved status because of EC (Executive Council) resolution 2021-09 of 22 February 2021.

APNIC believes the proposal’s language and sub-headings are confusing and do not clearly refer to the EC resolution, which can lead to misinterpretation of the proposed solution. The interpretation section of the APNIC Definitions Document specifies that “Headings and sub-headings are inserted for ease of reference only and do not affect the interpretation of the document.”

APNIC suggests that one of the clauses be removed to avoid confusion, simply the proposed solution, and a heading relevant to the content of the section be included. For example:

4.3 Claiming and re-delegating historical resources

Historical resources that are no longer published in the APNIC Whois Database and are placed in reserved status because of EC resolution 2021-09 of 22 February 2021 can be claimed by the custodians within 12 months of the date they were marked as reserved.

After 12 months, these resources will be placed in the free pool for re-delegation.

Any historical resources marked as reserved and/or reclaimed by APNIC due to account closures will lose their “historical” status and become “current” resources for re-delegation.

This proposal may require changes to APNIC systems. If this proposal reaches consensus and endorsed by the EC, implementation may be completed within three months.