AFRINIC has the right to reclaim those resources should it prove that usage of such is not in any way beneficial to the continent in which it’s mandated to operate and support.
We will not defend CI or Lu Heng for persisting in this, we the members felt it’s a blackmail and the action taken by AFRNIC was in good faith. Anyone supporting such actions as those taken by CI and its sympathizers is against democracy and fair utilization/usage of global number resources and by extension; I dare say, not a Mandolorian. This is the way!
NO Owen, we can’t have a single rogue member bring a whole entity that is mandated with an important task for the continent to a stand still just because they can twist the law and quote bylaws or manipulate processes.
This is WRONG and shall remain to be so no matter how repeated and “fancily” satinize it with a good read of the mandalorians ways of life.
LET AFRINIC BE, and not undermine it’s operations or the intelligence of the other members who need it’s services.
My point exactly!
And it’s so shameful that we have people trying to defend them by throwing laws,bylaws, management blah blah…spoof coof attacks on AFRINIC processes.
We are not happy with the current situation and the member should be awareness and we also noticed how rogue that member is during the election period.
“When African ISPs allocate IP addresses to all those new electronic devices, they will not be using the legacy IPv4 addresses AFRINIC is currently risking its existence over. Instead, they will be allocating the IPv6 addresses that represent the future of the Internet, both inside and outside Africa.”
whew
OK, that was a good laugh.
I needed some humour to start my day off. 
Sorry–any article that ignores the non-starting aspect of IPv6-only connectivity isn’t worth the electrons it’s (not) printed on. 
The sad fact of the Internet today is that without at least some IPv4 addresses, you’re not on the Internet.
Sure, you can do 464XLAT and other things like that to minimize the amount of IPv4 addresses you need, but you can’t run a pure IPv6-only network today for consumer use; there’s too much of the Internet you just can’t access without at least some IPv4 presence. And as such, that means that every ISP, every company that wants to be multihomed to more than one upstream provider requires allocations of both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses in order to be functional.
I think it’s an ugly situation all around, but from my reading of the Consolidated Resource Policy Manual,
what Cloud Innovations did is clearly against the intent stated in the AFRINIC policy manual:
“5.4.6.2 AFRINIC resources are for AFRINIC service region and any use outside the region should be solely in support of connectivity back to the AFRINIC region.”
That clause has been in the AFRINIC Consolidated Policy Resource Manual since version 0.1, published nearly a decade ago in 2014.
https://afrinic.net/cpm-0-1
Now, if I had been involved in crafting the policy document, I would have strongly recommended that the particular clause be included in section 5.2, rather than 5.4, as it really should have been broadly applicable no matter what phase of exhaustion the IPv4 pool happened to be in at the time. By tucking it in under 5.4, in the “Soft Landing” portion of the document, it wrapped the regional requirement under a relatively restrictive scope:
“This IPv4 Soft Landing policy applies to the management of address space that will be available to AFRINIC after the current IPv4 pool is depleted. The purpose of this document is to ensure that address space is assigned and/or allocated in a manner that is acceptable to the AFRINIC community especially during this time of IPv4 exhaustion.”
Had policy 5.4.6.2 instead been policy 5.2.1.5, this would be a moot discussion, and Cloud Innovations would clearly be in the wrong, and AFRINIC would be clearly justified in clawing the number resources back.
However, because the regional use restriction was tucked under the rubric of the “applies to the management of address space that will be available to AFRINIC after the current IPv4 pool is depleted” stipulation (emphasis mine), it leaves the argument open that until AFRINIC completely exhausted its available IPv4 pool, no such regional restriction should apply.
I do not envy either party in this fight.
But if nothing else, it can provide guidance on why number policy matters, and why it is useful to have contrarians that look at every clause and wonder “could this be abused in a way we hadn’t considered?” ^_^;
Matt
Somewhat related (at least one of the principals is the same) and perhaps of interest to some here. While I have strong opinions on the topic, provided without comment:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/supporting-and-protecting-internet-governance
Regards,
-drc
Layer 8: People
Layer 9: Money
Layer 10: Lawyers.
Cheers,
-- jra
The seven lawyers of the OSI model
1: Family lawyer (where it all starts)
2: Admiralty lawyer
3: Intellectual Property lawyer (because, of course)
-
Immigration lawyer
-
Real Estate lawyer
-
Entertainment lawyer
-
Labor lawyer
-mel
You forgot Estate Planning lawyer and, of course, email law and policy lawyer. 
Anne
Just like a lawyer, trying to add layers to the model.
-mel
Lol
Hi David
Thanks for sharing this. So, its seems like Lu is continuing with his legal intimadations across other RIR regions.
Christopher Hawker, should not be intimidated. I was the first internet community members to be sued by Lu and I believe Amin was the second and Brian and Benedict cases followed across the AFRINIC region who also faced similar legal suits.
Some of the defamation cases across various high courts have since been dismissed after over one year litigations and defending ourselves. I personally never thought of seeking support from anyone as no one came to offer it. But I remained positive with my legal counsel who was able to take up the case within my means and continued to legally represent me and defend me within my financial means.
I believe the same is true for both Amin in Nigeria, Brian in Malawi and Benedict in TZ. We believe in what we stand for across Africa in as far as AFRINIC is concerned and it is worthwhile experience for the future of Africa for we understand how digital transformation has impacted out continent with the small IPv4 space that was allocated to us by IANA when AFRINIC was formed. We have managed to do something with it in the last decades to transform out continent and no bully shall deter us from the noble cause.
In any case, all the best to Christopher Hawker and in case you need some ideas or references on how to go about Lu, please reach out.
Noah
