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

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <2AD1B79E-F757-41B4-ADF1-26FABE59DE84 at delong.com>, 
Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com> wrote:


>I think the idea of "legacy space" is a mistake. The

>idea that there is some magical property to addresses which were first

>issued prior to the existence of RIRs which is preserved in perpetuity

>is absurd.


I personally am inclined to agree with this view, but this viewpoint
is quite certainly not shared by ARIN and/or by ARIN's legal counsel,
for reasons that could best be explained by ARIN's legal counsel,
rather than by me.

In short, it is all well and good for us to express our personal
preferences here on this mailing list, but we are not lawyers and
we are not in court, attempting to defend our actions.

Before AFRINIC makes any change to the current status quo in relation to
legacy blocks, it would be best, I think, to first obtain some actual
legal opinions on the matter from some actual lawyers, as well as some
input from ARIN officials who have a longer history of dealing with this
specific issue.


Regards,
rfg


P.S.  And just so I am clear, I do not think that Mr. Cohen or his
present and pending legal action has any bearing at all on, or should
have any effect at all on any decisions that AFRINIC might elect to
take in relation to legacy blocks.  It may be some time yet, but Mr.
Cohen shall inevitably lose in court, because he can be rather easily
shown to be simply a scam artist, and that will be the end of that.
Thus, his very temporary and silly diversion of our attentions should
not have any effect on the rational discussion of, and decisions about
sensible and generally applicable AFRINIC community developed policies,
going forward.

Like our Mr. Trump here in the U.S.  Mr. Cohen and his crocodile tears
will soon enough be rendered entirely irrelevant.