An update on the AfriNIC situation

Mon Aug 30 19:37:58 UTC 2021

> I really, really don't want to upset Mel more than he already is, but Owen
> shared a link with an actual order of the court. After "consideration of the
> affidavit" the court allowed "up to" $50 million to be frozen. Whatever the
> merits of the affidavit are, it indicates that the court looked at the facts,
> made a determination and based on that ordered the asset freeze. That sounds
> like a (preliminary) ruling to me.

It has not. It's just an assessment that the assets involved can be
valued at that amount.

> I don't necessarily agree with it due to
> the implications it has on African internet operations, and, as Mark rightfully
> brought up, all the employment that depends on it, but I have to respect it.

No need to agree or disagree with a court that hasn't made a decision
on this yet. And when a decision comes out some will agree, others
will disagree, and that will also be sorted out.

> And don't get me wrong: I am not informed enough as to the dispute itself so
> I'm unable to form an opinion on who is right and who is wrong here. People
> whom I deeply respect on this list are on opposite sides so that adds to the
> confusion. I am, however, concerned with the operational implications. That's
> why I donated to the keep-Afrinic-alive-fund.

There is another operational implication if RIRs are unable to enforce
deviations from the information provided when a resource holder
applied for them. Regardless of whether the business model is good or
bad, I don't see that party proving that they told AfriNIC at
application time of the usage they really did of the resources. But if
RIRs are unable to enforce those, they become book-keepers instead of
RIRs. All IPv4 allocation could be done with a single shared
spreadsheet for the whole world.

> I've ran an RBL for years, which many people used. It closed down more than
> a decade ago. Out of 100 DNS queries I logged just now with a quick tcpdump
> on one of my three DNS servers, I counted 51 for rbl.cluecentral.net. That's
> why I'm advocating to reconsider your carpet-bombing (filter into oblivion)
> recommendation. People don't remove them.

I understand the risk, but when choosing between that risk and the
systemic risk for the RIR system, the choice for me is very clear.
Kinda like removing a malignant tumor.

Rubens