[Community-Discuss] Notice to all the legacy netblocks holders in AfriNIC

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <05751329-1002-4A8C-9CB0-318882CB984E at me.com>, 
Noah, <noah at neo.co.tz> wrote:


>Let us have a civilized discourse for we are a polite community. 

>That is all am saying.


Where were you during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870?

They could have used this bit of sage wisdom right around that time!

:-)


But seriously, I suspect that few on this mailing list have been involved
in actual litigation.  I have been, so I can speak to the nature of such
conflicts based on personal first-hand experience.

As my former attorney once told me, lawsuits are really just a somewhat
more civilized version of outright war.  Over time, I came to understand
that he was entirely right about that.  A lawsuit is a war by other means.

Mr. Cohen has declared war on AFRINIC.  He is currently pursuing that war,
with no signs of retreating or giving up.

Under these circumstances, matters relating to ordinary etiquette and
politness that are appropriate, expected, and essential at other times
and in other contexts are simply inapplicable.  No British soldier in
the trenches of World War I asked any German soldier if he had had his
morning tea before bayoneting him through the belly.

The institution that is AFRINIC is being besieged, via lawsuit, by
Mr. Cohen.  And on what basis?  For what crime?  We still have no
idea what this is even all about, or what Mr. Cohen's actual claims are.

Meanwhile, Mr.Cohen's past actions speak louder than anything that any
of us here might say or write.  I mentioned the five legacy /16 blocks
in the APNIC region that he had squatted on, inclding even a block
belonging to the Australian government.  I could and should perhaps also
have mentioned the case of the City of Cape Town's /16 block, and/or
the fact that Mr. Cohen, in -another- show of force and stupidity...
equally as brazen and ill-considered as his present vicious and baseless
legal attack on AFRINIC... also hired legal council in South Africa in a
vain and short-lived attempt to browbeat, harass, and extort the City
of Cape Town into giving him -their- rightful property (165.25.0.0/16).

I could go on and list a litany of other and additional depraved actions
on the part of Mr. Cohen, but I need not do so in order to make my
point, which is just that none of Mr. Cohen's actions, to date, comport
even in the slightest way with the norms and conventions of a "polite
community".  He has, by his actions, even more than his words, shown
himself to be about as polite as your typical horn-headed Viking marauder.

So now, given that, should we all now sit down to a polite cup of tea
with Mr. Cohen, even as he wages war against AFRINIC and its community
via the proxy of his hired mercinary barristers in the courts of Mauritius?
Is this wisdom or folly?  Civility or lunacy?

Frankly, the fact that Mr. Cohen has not already been shown the door
entirely, with respect to the mailing lists *and* with respect to the
WHOIS data base is beyond my poor ability to fathom.

If Mr. Cohen feels that he has some point to make, e.g. in his wild and
unsupported allegations of misdeeds by the present AFRINIC management,
then let him make those exact points in the forum that he himself has
chosen, i.e. in the law courts of Mauritius.  He has, I assume, retained
capable counsel to make his case and his points there.  Here however,
the community does not owe him a hearing, fair or otherwise, even while
he is waging an ongoing litigation war against AFRINIC, its management,
and its ordinarily respectful and polite community.

It is actually quite absurd to see Mr. Cohen here attempting, lamely,
to browbeat Eddy into giving him exactly the property that he is already
in court fighting over... as if this would make any difference to the
inevitable outcome.  I can only guess that perhaps it is starting to dawn
on him that he hasn't got a snowball's chance in hell of getting what he
wants from the courts, so he is already switching to Plan B, which
apparently consists of just browbeating Eddy on the mailing lists.

Would someone else like to try to explain to Mr. Cohen that this isn't
going to work either, or shall I?


Regards,
rfg