As Nigel wrote, the issues is that the RIPE NCC need to have *Members* to keep its status within the tax authorities.So, you first suggest a basic member fee to avoid billing per IP, but then you move to a scheme where you actually suggest fees per block of IP addresses. Tell me, how is this not billing per ip? It still looks like RIPE will be 'selling' amounts of IP addresses, grouped in blocks. And selling 'products' has to be taxed.