[growse]

I didn't think that RIPE let you sell off IP address space, given that RIPE 'owns' the actual addresses and just allocates them to members. Has the govt effectively 'sold' these addresses in the same way that my ISP has 'sold' me a static IP address on my DSL connection?

How can the buyers do anything useful with these addresses given that they'll still be tied to the original ASN through RIPE?

[adventured]

You definitely can. They're referred to as a "transfer," as of course you're not selling ownership.

http://v4escrow.net/v4escrow-completes-the-largest-ip-addres...

http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2014/07/21/652140/1009...

[zokier]

These large blocks might actually predate RIPE and thus not fall under their "jurisdiction".