If we do, can we make TL;DR a requirement? Over the years, what we all seem to agree on is legacy -discuss was a fail. Kudos for the realization. ARIN resources should support excellence at issuing IP numbers and doing it inexpensively and trying to _reduce_ member attention span required and expense.
"Unsubscribe me please" Warm regards, -M< On Sun, Aug 29, 2021 at 6:15 PM Ronald F. Guilmette <r...@tristatelogic.com> wrote: > In message > <F04ED1585899D842B482E7ADCA581B84A9C40DDC@newserver.arneill-py.local> > Michel Py <mic...@arneill-py.sacramento.ca.us> wrote: > > >+1 > > I also would like to jump onto this bandwagon and likewise express my > appreciation for John's publication of his missive in support of AFRINIC. > > I have a rather special and personal reason to be interested in these > matters, > as some of you no doubt know. > > As those who know me can attest, I have for many years now been a > persistent > critic of essentially all of the organs of Internet governance, including > all of the RIRs and also ICANN. But I like to think that my criticisms > remain fair and above the belt. I don't believe in kicking an institution > when it's down, as AFRINIC is, at present. > > Also, as many of you surely also know, back in the latter part of 2019, I, > together with my South African journalistic collaborator, Jan Vermeulen > @ MyBroadBand.co.za, publicly exposed the fact that our investigations > had revealed a years-long insider embezzlement scheme within AFRINIC > involving the theft of a great deal of valuable IPv4 address space. > > Following those public revelations, the insider responsible was fired > and a police report was filed in relation to that individual's blatantly > criminal activities. Those activities quite unambiguously consisted of > both (a) assigning himself large swaths of IPv4 address space out of > AFRINIC's free pool and also (b) manipulating the WHOIS records of numerous > long-abandonded AFRINIC legacy blocks so as to effectively cede control of > those blocks to various other parties. > > To its credit, in the wake of that scandal AFRINIC conducted a detailed and > conprehensive audit of its records with assistance from APNIC, and made the > results of that audit public. It also reclaimed into its free pool all or > essentially all of the stolen free pool space that I and Jan had identified > as having been purloined as part of the overall embezzlement scheme. > > I only wish that I could say that AFRINIC's Board and management had been > quite so diligent and responsible in the case of the numerous stolen > AFRINIC legacy blocks. Alas, they have not been, the result being that > many stolen AFRINIC legacy blocks are still in profitable use by the > recipients of those stolen goods to this day... a fact which I continue > to remind everyone about at every opportunity, for all the good it will > do. (AFRINIC is quite obviously loath to clean up this mess for which > AFRINIC itself is quite clearly responsible.) > > Crime on the Internet DOES pay, it seems, as long as one commits it in > connection with abandoned legacy blocks. But enough about that. I have > digressed from the real point of this email. > > Despite my many disagreements with the various RIRs, e.g. over the provable > thefts of legacy blocks, over their reluctance to do anything about those, > and over what I feel is -all- RIR's pervasive and over-the-top > fetishization > of secrecy, I am compelled in the present context to set aside all of those > ongoing concerns and take the side of AFRINIC in all of its several and now > very public legal conflicts. > > For those unaware, there are two such conflicts that substantially pre-date > the current multi-pronged legal attacks of Lu Heng / Cloud Innovation > against AFRINIC and its board chaiman and CEO in their personal capacities. > > I will not elaborate upon these other two earlier and still ongoing legal > disputes other than to say that both were brought against AFRINIC by what > appear to be disgruntled final recipients of some of the same embezzled > AFRINIC free pool IPv4 blocks that were first identified by myself and > Jan Vermeulen in the fall of 2019, based upon substantial hard evidence. > These two Plaintiffs are obviously unhappy that AFRINIC did the Right Thing > and reclaimed the provably stolen free pool blocks back into the AFRINIC > free pool so that these blocks could eventually be re-deployed for the > benefit the AFRINIC community. > > Personally, I think that both of these two lawsuits are somewhere beyond > frivolous and that they are both inevitably doomed to fail, being as they > are simply attempts to misuse and abuse the Mauritian courts to reclaim > clearly stolen goods. Indeed, it is yet another of my many criticisms > that AFRINIC, for reasons that remain unexplained, has not yet succeded > at persuading the Mauritian courts to flush these meritless actions down > the toliet, where they belong, despite both legal actions having been > pending for numerous months now. > > That brings us to the present legal conflict between Lu Heng and his > company, > Cloud Innovation, and AFRINIC. > > It is hard to competently comment on this legal conflict given that neither > I nor any other non-party has even been allowed to see any of the relevant > legal filings. Contrary to the default status of court documents in just > about every civilized country, all court documents in Mauritius are sealed > by default and are not considered public documents. Fortunately however > Lu Heng and/or his various public reprentatives, real or fictitious, have > openly discussed many aspects of Cloud Innovation's multiple Mauritian > legal > actions. Some small clues have also been made public by AFRINIC. Despite > these limitations, I'd like to just offer up a few observations based on > the limited set of publicly known facts. > > Firstly, in my rarely humble opinion, and based upon my own personal past > experience with litigation, it is my belief that when it comes to Cloud > Innovation's $1.8 billion dollar lawsuit against AFRINIC arising out of > AFRINIC's attempts to reclaim the 6,291,456 IPv4 addresses that AFRINIC > previously assigned to the company, Lu Heng hasn't got a legal leg to > stand on. In fact, I felt so certain of this that awhile back I even > went so far as to draft and post my best attempt at a lawyerly brief in > support of Defendant AFRINIC's (hypothetical) Motion To Dismiss. This > prior public post of mine provided all of the several reasons why I believe > that Cloud Innovation's primary lawsuit MUST fail as a matter of law: > > > https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss/2021-August/004505.html > > The bottom line is that the one and only thing that creates any connection > between Cloud Innovation and AFRINIC is the RSA and the RSA (Section > 4(c)(i)) > says quite clearly that AFRINIC can take your space back if you start using > it for some purpose(s) other than the one(s) you said you were going to use > it for when it was assigned to you. That's it. End of story. > > Like a Houdini, Lu Heng is now trying to wriggle his his way free of this > plain English part of the contract, but unfortunately for him, he really > can't. It's not ambiguous or anything. As part of his attempts to somehow > wriggle out of the clear and express terms of the contract, he is basically > doing everything he can to throw sand in the umpire's eyes. He's making > claims that the AFRINIC board has acted in bad faith, that it has acted > in a manner totally outside of community-ratified policy edicts, and that > it > has effectively exercised "selective enforcement" against him, in > particular, > even though there are lots of other AFRINIC resource holders who, upon > careful > review, would also be found to be in violation of the rules. > > Personally, I don't think that the Board has acted in bad faith. It might > perhaps be an arguable point that the Board made some decisions... prudent > decisions... based on facts and evidence in a manner that was not > specifically > and explicitly codified into formal policy, but I think that's the whole > point of having a board... so that you have some intelligent and > knowledgable > people who can make decisions about the "corner cases" that fall outside of > the normal course of business and/or that fall outside of the written, > codified, and fully ratified policies and procedures. If codified and > community-ratified policies covered every possible situation and every > possible eventuality, then you wouldn't even need a boad of directors. > You could just feed the facts into an AI that had been given the full set > of RIR policies and out would pop the Right Answer for any given situation, > no matter how bizzare or unique. > > In short, board members are there it make decisions. They aren't just > intended to be potted plants or window dressing. > > Lu Heng's point about "selective enforcement" is perhaps his best (and > only?) > argument, but even in this case it is, or at any rate should be a loser > in court. I mean where is it written that life should be fair? Do we > criticize the FBI and the DoJ for investigating and prosecuting some > specific bank robber if they fail to also investigate a small-time thief > or con-man with equal vigor? No, of course not. More to the point, it > is quite certainly *not* a permissible defense in any court of law that I > am > aware of to say that if you have comitted some offense you should be set > free just because the authorities were, for whatever reasons, not able > to also and likewise apprehend and prosecute *all* other similar offenders. > > There is an old Japanese saying that "The nail that sticks up shall be > pounded > down." Lu Heng made himself a HUGE target by getting himself 6 million+ > valuable IPv4 addresses. To a certain extent, he himself did a lot to > insure that he would be very near the front of the line when AFRINIC > started > looking around for comapnies that were breaking the rules. Now he needs > to live with that outcome, which is at least partially a result of his own > choices. > > Finally I would like to discuss the topic of tactics, and the really quite > objectionable means that Lu Heng is employing to achieve his ends. > > A former attorney of mine once remarked to me that "A lawsuit is war by > other > means." Based upon my own past experiences with litigation I think this is > accurate. In civilized societies, no matter the depth of our disagreement, > hatred, or animosity, as civilized men we submit ourselves to a process > that > does not involve us meeting on a field to re-enact one of the blood-soaked > battle scenes from the movie "Braveheart" (1995). It must be noted however > that even in war, there are rules of conduct. In modern times these have > been codified into the Geneva Conventions, but the concept of limits, even > in time of war, dates back hundreds of years. Limits dictating what is and > what isn't acceptable behavior in war were even referenced by William > Shakespeare ih his classic retelling of the tale of The Battle of Agincourt > which took place in the year 1415. > > I believe that Lu Heng, by his legal actions, has placed himself beyond the > pale of even the civilized form of war that takes place in courtrooms. > > Although it is quite certainly Lu Heng's right to legally contest AFRINIC's > recent attempts to reclaim his IPv4 blocks, via the courts in Mauritius, > there are two related legal actions that he has undertaken, both of which > I personally find reprehensible, uncalled for, and entirely outside of what > I consider civilized behavior. > > First, there is this matter of the freeze that was placed by the Mauritian > courts on all or essentially all of AFRINIC's working capital. Even just > the fact that Lu Heng requested this freeze is a sign of bad faith in my > opinion. It is one thing to take a party to court in order to secure a > reasonable and fair judgement if that party has in fact wronged you, > economically or otherswise. It is another thing entirely to prevail upon > some misguided or biased judge in a tricky legal maneuver designed to > totally hobble one's adversary by freezing all of its assets before the > merits of either their case or your's has even been considered in court. > (Note also that Lu Heng obtained this freeze order in an exceptionally > dubious "ex parte" legal proceeding where AFRINIC was not even allowed to > be present to defend itself.) > > I remain awestruck by the fact that some judge in Mauritius was persuaded > to enter this freeze order without so much as even making a reasonable > inquiry about the probability, or lack thereof, that AFRINIC was any kind > of a flight risk, or that it might up and disappear, in the dead odf night, > along with all of its operating capital. If *any* judicial inquiry had > been made about this possibility, the courts would surely have seen that > AFRINIC had been in business in Maurituius for some 17 years, and that it > had offices, desks, chairs, phones, Internet connections, and a staff of > over 50 souls, all of which would have indicated, quite persuasively, that > AFRINIC wasn't going anywhere, and that there was neither need for, nor > cause for its assets to be frozen before it was allowed to make its case > in court. > > In short, I have no idea what the judiciary down there in Mauritius has > been > smoking, but whatever it is, it must be some potent stuff. Or perhaps I am > just expecting too much from a little speck of sunswept beaches that, in > total, is 35% smaller than the State of Rhode Island, and which is known > worldwide primarily for those beautiful beaches, along with tax evasion > and money laundering. > > In any event, the bizzare and throughly unjustified asset freeze is only > one of the legal actions that Lu Heng has undertaken and which I personally > find reprehensible. > > More recently Lu Heng has also filed suit for defamation against both the > Chairman of the AFRINIC board of directors, and also the AFRINIC CEO. The > damages he is requesting in this separate action are $80 million USD. > > REGARDLESS of whether Lu Heng has a valid cause of action in this separate > defamation suit or not, the suit itself certainly give every appearance of > being a legal intimidation tactic, intended to bring additional pressure on > the decision makers at AFRINIC. > > Maybe Lu Heng has a valid case for defamation and maybe he doesn't. As > noted > above, even the legal complaint in this separate defamation case is not > available to the public, based on the Mauritian judicial policy of default > secrecy. It is thus essentially impossible for any non-party to know if > this case has any merit or not. What can be said is that the -timing- of > this separate suit against the AFRINIC chairman and the CEO, in their > personal > capacities, raises the unavoidable question of whether or not the Mauritian > courts are being misused and abused for the improper purpose of > intimidation. > > To sum up, it is my belief, based upon my reading of the AFRINIC RSA, that > AFRINIC was well within its rights to do what it did as far as reclaiming > Lu Heng's 6+ million IPV4 addresses. And even if it wasn't, the only > remedy available to Lu Heng is the termination of the RSA contract between > Cloud Innovation and AFRINIC, which is exactly what AFRINIC has been > seeking > to achieve anyway. > > Separately, Lu Heng's actions in seeking and obtaining a freeze of > AFRINIC's > working capital, and his separate legal action against the AFRINIC chairman > and CEO in their personal capacities are both, in my opinion, grotesque > abuses of the Mauritius judicial system, and it is my hope that they will > be seen as such by all parties with an interest in these matters. > > > Regards, > rfg > _______________________________________________ > ARIN-PPML > You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to > the ARIN Public Policy Mailing List (ARIN-PPML@arin.net). > Unsubscribe or manage your mailing list subscription at: > https://lists.arin.net/mailman/listinfo/arin-ppml > Please contact i...@arin.net if you experience any issues. >
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