La saga continue, après le vol de prefix et la revente par un 'insider'
2019.
Il est bien que ARIN rappelle son engagement, mais par la même la limite
de celui-ci (dernier point) et ne dit que sa propre expérience avec
ledit 'Individual'. prudent. On peux aussi interpréter ce gel de
ressources comme un avertissement d'AFRINIC au petit (et gros) joueurs.
C'est bien mais c'est la aussi soit trop tard soit un coup d’épée dans
l'eau ?
Cela dit RIPE ou APNIC n'a rien dit. L'APNIC for 'obvious reasons': la
Chine étant dans leur périmètre. Le RIPE NCC n'a pas de structure pour
cela, et se concentre sur ses propres problèmes avec les pays sous
embargo (Iran, Yemen...), ou la Russie et son vague mais néanmoins
existant projet de NIC, (les RIR régionaux comme cela existe au Japon
chez APNIC, au Brésil chez LACNIC). Vous ne l'avez peut être pas vu mais
régulièrement des ressources quittent la Russie (par peur de prise en
mains par le gouvernement des ressources IP) pour aller se réfugier en
République Czech, entre amis. C'est discret mais régulier.
Mais que fait l'ICANN ? Attendons la probable enquête indépendant de
Ronald F. Guilmette :)
Nota1: On peux aussi se dire que l'appropriation des ressources par la
Chine ne se limite pas aux ressources naturelles et que l’Afrique est le
terrain de prédilection.
Nota 2: la France a accès a AFRINIC via la Réunion/Mayotte.
T
On 28/08/2021 04:45, Michel Py via frnog wrote:
D'une manière inhabituelle, John Curran (le président d'ARIN) a jugé bon de
poster ce qui est copié ci-dessous sur la liste PPML d'ARIN.
C'est trolldi, Lu Heng quelqu'un connait ?
Pas moi, évidemment; je suis innocent comme l'agneau qui vient de naitre.
Michel.
From: ARIN-PPML [mailto:arin-ppml-boun...@arin.net] On Behalf Of John Curran
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2021 6:55 AM
To: ARIN-PPML List
Subject: [arin-ppml] AFRINIC And The Stability Of The Internet Number Registry
System
Importance: High
ARIN Community -
In response to questions about the dispute in the AFRINIC region, please refer
to the following article (link and text attached below –
<https://teamarin.net/2021/08/27/afrinic-and-the-stability-of-the-internet-number-registry-system/>
FYI,
/John
John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers
===
August 27, 2021
AFRINIC And The Stability Of The Internet Number Registry System
By John Curran - President and CEO, American Registry for Internet Numbers,
Ltd. (ARIN)
As many in the community are aware, the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) that
serves Africa (AFRINIC) has been involved in litigation with a company known as
“Cloud Innovation” operating out of the Seychelles and under control of an
individual named Lu Heng (who resides primarily in Hong Kong.) Disputes between
RIRs and their customers do occur from time to time, and it is best that such
disputes are resolved within that RIR, its community, and/or the applicable
legal and courts system if necessary.
ARIN does not normally comment on disputes or related litigation occurring at
another RIR, but this matter has become quite different, as it is both highly
public and has potential for significant impact to the overall stability of the
Internet number registry system and thus to ARIN and its community. Therefore,
I address the ARIN community to provide insight into the nature of the dispute,
to highlight some troublesome aspects of the ongoing litigation, and finally to
reiterate ARIN’s unwavering support to AFRINIC and the African networking
community.
The Dispute and Litigation
In 2020, AFRINIC completed a registry audit to confirm that number resources
were properly reflected in the registry; and as a result, determined that it
required additional information from Cloud Innovation regarding its utilization
of previously issued Internet number resources. This sort of resource review is
not uncommon among the RIRs, and ARIN has its own resource review process that
is similar in nature. Upon reviewing the information provided by Cloud
Innovation, AFRINIC determined that the resources were not being utilized for
the purposes for which they were issued and noted that they would be revoked
(after a suitable time to allow customer migration off those resources.) Mr. Lu
and his businesses disputed AFRINIC’s authority to enforce this provision of
its customer agreement and instead engaged in several legal actions in the
courts in Mauritius to prevent having to return the address blocks to AFRINIC.
As noted earlier, normally disputes are routine in nature and are generally best
resolved by the individual RIR, its community, and/or the applicable legal &
courts system. However, among the motions that Cloud Innovation has made is one
that currently freezes AFRINIC’s accounts and thus has the potential to hamper
AFRINIC’s operations and ability to serve both the community in Africa as well as
the global community that relies upon the Internet number registry system. ARIN
takes stability of the Internet number registry system very seriously; and
considering this risk, we are compelled to provide this update to the ARIN
community as it needs to be aware of these developments and potential implications.
I must also share some of ARIN’s knowledge related to this matter as it informs and
directs our stance going forward.
Prior Dealings with ARIN
ARIN has first-hand experience and insight into Mr. Lu’s business practices in seeking IP number resources. Mr. Lu, through Cloud Innovation, Ltd., received 6.2 million IPv4 addresses from AFRINIC in four different installments[1]; however, it is worth noting that in 2013,Mr. Lu, through his company Outside Heaven, Ltd., also approached and sought over one million IPv4 addresses from ARIN. ARIN ultimately refused to provide any resources to him and his business for two main reasons: First, during the review of his application to justify the provision of Internet number resources, Mr. Lu refused to provide ARIN with information that was repeatedly requested on a number of occasions; and second, the information provided by Mr. Lu was misleading and inconsistent. In addition, Mr. Lu had no meaningful business establishment in the ARIN region; and based on his own representations, it was clear the intended use of the IPv4 addresses—if they were issued—was for
business
activities outside the ARIN service region. Given the seriousness of
potentially false statements made to ARIN to obtain number resources, ARIN
attempted to engage in appropriate due diligence with which Mr. Lu was
unwilling to cooperate. ARIN refused his application for IPv4 number resources.
Use of the AFRINIC Resources Out of Africa
ARIN has reviewed the utilization of the number resource blocks issued by
AFRINIC to Cloud Innovation and determined that the overwhelming majority of
the approximately 6.2 million IP addresses issued have not been used within the
African continent. While there are cases of entire address blocks being routed
from an ISP in South Africa, Cloud Innovation also has announced more specific
routes from ISPs in Hong Kong and the United States. Because more specific
announcements take routing precedence, this rendered the routing announcement
at the South African ISP moot and resulted in the vast majority of the traffic
usage being outside of Africa. Such a result is not surprising as Cloud
Innovation has indicated that they predominantly “lease” the IP address space
to other parties rather than utilize it to provide connectivity services
directly.
It is apparent that Cloud Innovation’s use of the issued number resources is not being used for the purpose for which they were issued; and as such, it appears that AFRINIC is within its rights per the registration services agreement to reclaim them so that they may be used for the benefit of the African community. This is among the issues that will need to be considered by the Mauritian court, as well as whether there was fraud in the inception of the contractual process when the resources were issued. Because AFRINIC is directly involved in the litigation, it has quite properly limited its public comments on the ongoing litigation with Mr. Lu and his companies. However, Mr. Lu, and parties related to Mr. Lu, have not limited their actions to the courts and have maintained a steady stream of confusing and inconsistent misinformation to the public that apparently distorts the issues to cast AFRINIC in a most unfavorable light. Neither the AFRINIC nor the ARIN
communit
ies should expect a quick answer from the courts, but it will ultimately yield
a ruling. In the interim, as procedural motions are being sorted out, the
community should not make judgements about the court proceeding until the
substantive issues are addressed.
Joint RIR Stability Fund
The RIRs have committed to mutual assistance, in kind and financial, to ensure
operational continuity of the Internet number registry system; and in 2015, the
RIRs established a Joint RIR Stability Fund as a prudent contingency measure
towards long-term Internet number registry stability. The Fund has been
established through voluntary pledges of funds from individual RIRs’ reserves,
and upon an RIR’s duly submitted request for support from the Stability Fund,
the funds may be made available to support that RIR’s registry and policy
development activities. There is in excess of $2M USD of financial support
collectively pledged from the RIRs for this purpose; and in addition, support
can also be provided in-kind (e.g., through operational staff for support of
operational activities if needed.)
If AFRINIC requests support in accordance with the Joint RIR Stability Fund,
ARIN will support such a request. Furthermore, and without reservation, ARIN
stands by its unwavering commitment to support AFRINIC and will take any and
all measures necessary to ensure that neither the African networking community,
nor the global Internet number registry system, is operationally impacted
during this period. AFRINIC was formed (and has accomplished so much) for the
benefit of the African networking community and ARIN stands with the community
in dealing with those who seek to disrupt or exploit it for their own benefit.
[1]
154.80.0.0/12 (Issued 07/24/2013)
45.192.0.0/12 (Issued 12/1/2014)
156.224.0.0/11 (Issued 12/22/2015)
154.192.0.0/11 (Issued 09/16/2016)
===
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