* Michiel Klaver
Removing the needs-based requirement would break open the entire IPv4 market, letting big corporations to buy everything available and then decide who they are willing to sell it for the highest price.
IP addresses will become a tool to obstruct competitors, wipe-out all smaller players and locking the market for newcomers. An authority validating each request with the current policies could somewhat prevent that from happening.
You could say the same thing about real estate or pretty much any other freely traded resource in the world, and yet the sky isn't falling. In a competitive market, supply and demand will regulate the prices. Otherwise, there's plenty of laws governing cartels, monopolies, price fixing, anti-competitive practises, and so forth. -- Tore Anderson Redpill Linpro AS - http://www.redpill-linpro.com/