[Community-Discuss] Blog: A Comprehensive audit of the AFRINIC WHOIS Database

[Sunday Folayan]

 From the report ...

  * Our current business rules now provide better support to legacy
    resource holders such that proper verification for legacy resources
    holders will be conducted before any updates are made to the records
    on the AFRINIC WHOIS database.

It is important to quickly address why legacy holders should continue to 
get **ANY** service from AFRINIC without any form of contract, 
agreement, relationship or association.

Sunday.


On 2/11/21 10:57 AM, Noah wrote:

> Hi Ronald

>

> In short AFRINIC is paving the way and seeks the communities input on 

> how to handle the abandoned space.

>

> When one attempts a whois query today, you will note a flag which 

> AFRINIC has slapped on most of the legacy space which has since been 

> recovered some of which is under dispute.

>

> But we have an RIR in AFRINIC which is now trying to do something 

> about it.

>

> I am of the view that we perhaps engage the working group to see if we 

> can work out a policy on how to handle the space and/or getting it 

> into the free pool.

>

> Noah

>

>

>

> On Wed, 10 Feb 2021, 03:31 Ronald F. Guilmette, <rfg at tristatelogic.com 

> <mailto:rfg at tristatelogic.com>> wrote:

>

>     In message

>     <CAEqgTWah944VmGg7iRZ_9qvANgQTZt9QQsr33WjPCkcT+=-hqQ at mail.gmail.com

>     <mailto:hqQ at mail.gmail.com>>,

>     Noah <noah at neo.co.tz <mailto:noah at neo.co.tz>> wrote:

>

>     >While reading the report, I noted that among the recommendations

>     on how to

>     >make things better, was below.

>     >

>     >   - The report recommends that the AFRINIC community critically

>     assess how

>     >   best the accuracy of the information pertaining to Legacy

>     Resource Holders

>     >   can be improved and considers whether unused legacy resources

>     should be

>     >   left idle while AFRINIC exhausts its remaining pool of IPv4

>     addresses.

>

>     Please note that this problem... which I personally like to call the

>     "recycling problem"... is not at all unique to AFRINIC.  All five

>     of the

>     regional internet registries are suffering, to one degree or another,

>     with the problem of what to do about long-abandoned legacy blocks.

>

>     Although few people know even know about the problem, it is

>     rampant, and

>     it *is* a real and serious cause for global concern.  As I hope

>     everyone

>     in the AFRINIC region now knows, and as was already evident as far

>     back

>     as 2008, when I and Brian Krebs reported on the case of the "SF

>     Bay Packet

>     Radio" abandoned legacy ARIN /16 block, the Internet has become,

>     in effect,

>     a happy hunting ground for multiple gangs of essentially lawless

>     marauders

>     who have beo cme focused, quite specifically, on stealing or squatting

>     specifically on abadonded legacy blocks.  And once they have

>     successfully

>     stolen or squatted on such blocks, these criminal miscreants have

>     proven,

>     time and time again, that they are not too particular about the

>     kinds of

>     customers they then lease parts of such pilfered IPv4 space to. 

>     The result

>     is that invariably, these crooks end up leasing their stolen IP

>     space to

>     yet other criminal enterprises, and that, in turn, endangers us

>     all, we the

>     global community of honest Internet users.

>

>     Something should most certainly be doen to address this ongoing

>     and recurring

>     problem.  But it is legally somewhat tricky to take back legacy IP

>     space

>     which is not covered by any contract with any RIR.  Still that is no

>     excuse not to try.

>

>     I have previously put forward the idea that we can and should look

>     to the

>     well established principals of international maritime law in order to

>     properly address this problem.  Under international maritime law the

>     concept of abanndoned property, and rights relating to salvage, are

>     quite well established.  It is way past time for the international

>     internet, and the governance organizations thereof, to grow up,

>     slip out

>     of their infantile diapers, and for them to create at least some

>     sensible

>     legal framework and provisions for the recovery of abandoned property,

>     especially those chunks of long-abandoned property that have long

>     since

>     become what any lawyer or any sane person would easly recognizes being

>     an attractive public nuisance.  The fact that neither ICANN nor any of

>     the RIRs has yet even begun this process is a sad commentary on the

>     current state of "Internet governance", which might more aptly be

>     called

>     "Internet not-really-benign neglect".

>

>     In short, "leadership" when it comes to Internet governance is,

>     and has

>     been for many years now, arguably non-existant, at least with

>     respect to

>     this issue, if not also with respect to many many others.

>

>

>     Regards,

>     rfg

>

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>

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-- 
--------------------------------------------------
Sunday Adekunle Folayan
Managing Director
General data Engineering Services (SKANNET)
16 Oshin Road, Kongi Bodija, Ibadan - Nigeria
Phone: +234 802 291 2202, +234 816 866 7523
Email: sfolayan at skannet.com.ng, sfolayan at gmail.com
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