[Community-Discuss] South Africa ISPA Statement on Recent AFRINIC developments

[Owen DeLong]

> On Aug 1, 2021, at 17:19 , Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg at tristatelogic.com> wrote:

> 

> In message <CAOacvLE1taPAUaZ0xJJk_cMYtMpPOdkpHGP7hdogV9WH+BU6Jw at mail.gmail.com>

> Christian Orozco <chresgoro at gmail.com> wrote:

> 

>> Owen said, the CORRECTION of behavior is what's being sought.

> 

> I also have many outstanding quarrels with AFRINIC and I also fervently

> desire to see the organization's behavior be corrected.

> 

> But I do not pursue these goals either at the point of a gun, or via a

> $1.8 BILLION dollar lawsuit.  I do not do so because the ends do not

> justify the means, and I am a believer that change should be effected

> via democratic means, despite how frustrating that kind of process may

> be at times.


Would I have preferred to do this without having to involve the court systems? Yes, I would.

We tried that. Eddy chose not express offense at our willingness to question their interpretation
of policy instead of choosing to listen to the merits of our argument. He basically put us on
notice that AFRINIC’s next step would be to terminate our membership and revoke our resources.

Under such a circumstance, with so many customers and the company’s reputation on the
line, the decision was made (well above my pay grade) that it was necessary to pursue
legal remedies to protect the company from AFRINIC’s unreasonable actions.


> What is happening right now is instead an attempt at a corporate coup,

> and a hostile takeover, all engineered by one company and by one man.


I’m pretty sure that Lu has no desire to own AFRINIC or take over its operations.

Indeed, we have repeatedly expressed our interest and willingness to accept a reasonable
settlement offer from AFRINIC.  So far, AFRINIC has escalated the conflict at every
opportunity rather than express any desire to seek compromise or resolution.


> This is the very opposite of democracy.


This has nothing to do with democracy, this is business. AFRINIC threatened to violate
the terms of our contract based on violations and actions contrary to their own policies.
They chose not to attempt to resolve the dispute through negotiation and rejected any
possibility of other resolution. It’s a fairly ordinary contract dispute, not a coup,
not any sort of hostile takeover, nothing of the sort.

Owen