In message <CAEqgTWah944VmGg7iRZ_9qvANgQTZt9QQsr33WjPCkcT+=-h...@mail.gmail.com>, Noah <[email protected]> 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 _______________________________________________ Community-Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss
