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

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <ef77e9a3-16f6-f7b8-5418-e11acbee9931 at gmail.com>, 
Sunday Folayan <sfolayan at gmail.com> wrote:


>There is an hierarchy regarding the legacy space:

>

>1. Legacy Space as a whole

>

>2. Idle Legacy Space [There are indeed legacy spaces in use, and not idle]

>

>3. Hijacked and now recovered Idle legacy Space. [There are some legacy 

>spaces that can never be reclaimed by their initial allotees, probably 

>because they are out of business, and there is no successor organization]



That last part is simply incorrect.  There is no such thing as an abandoned
legacy block in the AFRINIC region for which the legitimate owner, or
the legitimate successor in interest cannot be definitively determined.

I meant to mention this fact earlier, since this relates quite directly
to two glaringly erroneous statements that appear on page 4 of the
recently published AFRINIC WHOIS Audit Reoport Overview.  The two
provably erroneous statements contained on page 4 of that Overview are
as follows:

    2. Holders of the resources may also be defunct

    9. Some  holders  of  legacy  resources  appeared  to have undergone a
    change of name so that it  is  no  longer  practicable  to  trace  down
    the  concerned organisations; 

I wish that AFRINIC management and/or the AFRINC Board had had the good
sense to consult with either myself or with Jan Vermeulen before they
elected to incorporate the above erroneous assertions into the Overview
of the Audit Report.

In point of fact, my detailed and extensive investigations into the histories
of every single one of the stolen legacy blocks have persuaded me, based
on clear evidence in each case, that there are -zero- such blocks under
the authority of AFRINIC where the original registration organizations
are "defunct" in the sense of being both dissolved AND having no legitimate
and lawful successor in interest.

In a similar vein, it is just plain wrong to assert that it is "no longer
practicable to trace down the" legal successors in interest for *any*
AFRINIC legacy block registrant.  I can state this categorically and
without reservation because I myself spent countless hours researching
the history and the historical evolution of each AFRINIC legacy IPv4
address block, and the ownership thereof, for each legacy block that I
and Jan Vermeulen have called attention to.  (And in fact I have had
personal phone conversations with all or nearly all of the legitimate
current block owners for all these blocks.)

In literally 100% of these cases, it HAS been possible to deduce, based
on public historical evidence, the legitimate successor in interest for
each and every one of the original registrant organizations.  Furthermore,
I have maintained detailed records which document my historical research
into the chain of legal inheritance for each and every one of these blocks,
and I have always been ready, willing, and able to submit this abundant
documentation to AFRINIC managament, when and if it was ever requested.
It never has been.

In short, as we all now know, AFRINC failed, during a period extending
across many years, to fulfill its obligations to act as a responsible
shepard of the IP addresses that history placed into the organization's
care.  AFRINIC allowed quite a lot of these IP addresses to be stolen,
right from under the noses of the entire staff and the CEO at the time.

AFRINIC has now compounded that original error with another one, i.e. an
apparent utter failure and/or unwillingness to do the kind of open source
historical research that I have already done, and that would allow each
and every stolen legacy block to now be returned to its lawful and
rightful owners, each of which CAN BE DEFINITIVELY DETERMINED, contrary
to the false assertions made in the Audit Report Overview.

Personally, I find this level of laziness and this kind of shirking of
responsibility, on the part of AFRINIC, inexcusable.  The truth is out
there, if they would only expend the effort, as I have, to look for it.

This secondary failure of the organization to act lawfully, and as a
responsible shepard of the IP space, is all the more galling to me
personally because I have already done all of the research needed to
establish the current rightful ownership of each block beyond a reasonable
doubt, and all AFRINIC management had to do was to ask me for that research
and I would have sent it all to them, along with my copious notes.  I was
never asked.

Regards,
rfg