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<p>Hello John</p>
<p>Congratulations for making this public statement in a very clear
and fair way based on facts that happened and real evidence.</p>
<p>I don't really agree every time I read stuff like "Every RIR
should resolve their own problems". Obviously there is some
specific stuff of the region and the legal system each RIR is
based on and that must be dealt by each RIR, but in general RIRs
operate em very similar ways and if there is a threat or a
tentative do subvert the proposal of a RIR all other RIRs, NRO,
ICANN and any organization that is committed to stability of the
internet have the duty to position themselves in the right side,
share important information that can contribute to clarify the
scenario to all stackholders and keep IP resources as fair as
possible among any end-user organization. A bad scenario for a RIR
has the potential to be replicated to any other so why it is
important in my view that each one position themselves in the
defense of the right principles that guide the operation of any
RIR.<br>
</p>
<p>I want to take the opportunity to reinforce to all following this
topic and that participate on policy making process the importance
to keep both eyes opened to tentatives of any possible actors that
may not necessarily be committed to continuous Internet
development, to provide internet connectivity and services to
people in general and that may try to use the policy making
process to change rules only for their personal/financial
interests.<br>
</p>
<p>Once again congratulations Team ARIN for the well written and
clear statement.<br>
</p>
<p>Regards<br>
Fernando<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 27/08/2021 10:55, John Curran wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:19C544CC-D36A-4017-BF22-C50ED9118720@arin.net">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<div class="">ARIN Community - </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">In response to questions about the dispute in the
AFRINIC region, please refer to the following article (link and
text attached below – </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span><<a
href="https://teamarin.net/2021/08/27/afrinic-and-the-stability-of-the-internet-number-registry-system/"
class="" moz-do-not-send="true">https://teamarin.net/2021/08/27/afrinic-and-the-stability-of-the-internet-number-registry-system/</a>></div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">FYI,</div>
<div class="">/John</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">
<div class="">John Curran</div>
<div class="">President and CEO</div>
<div class="">American Registry for Internet Numbers</div>
</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">===</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">August 27, 2021</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
AFRINIC And The Stability Of The Internet Number Registry System<br
class="">
<br class="">
</div>
<div class="">By John Curran - President and CEO, American
Registry for Internet Numbers, Ltd. (ARIN)<br class="">
<br class="">
As many in the community are aware, the Regional Internet
Registry (RIR) that serves Africa (AFRINIC) has been involved in
litigation with a company known as “Cloud Innovation” operating
out of the Seychelles and under control of an individual named
Lu Heng (who resides primarily in Hong Kong.) Disputes between
RIRs and their customers do occur from time to time, and it is
best that such disputes are resolved within that RIR, its
community, and/or the applicable legal and courts system if
necessary. <br class="">
<br class="">
ARIN does not normally comment on disputes or related litigation
occurring at another RIR, but this matter has become quite
different, as it is both highly public and has potential for
significant impact to the overall stability of the Internet
number registry system and thus to ARIN and its community.
Therefore, I address the ARIN community to provide insight into
the nature of the dispute, to highlight some troublesome aspects
of the ongoing litigation, and finally to reiterate ARIN’s
unwavering support to AFRINIC and the African networking
community. <br class="">
<br class="">
The Dispute and Litigation</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
In 2020, AFRINIC completed a registry audit to confirm that
number resources were properly reflected in the registry; and as
a result, determined that it required additional information
from Cloud Innovation regarding its utilization of previously
issued Internet number resources. This sort of resource review
is not uncommon among the RIRs, and ARIN has its own
resource review process that is similar in nature. Upon
reviewing the information provided by Cloud Innovation, AFRINIC
determined that the resources were not being utilized for the
purposes for which they were issued and noted that they would be
revoked (after a suitable time to allow customer migration off
those resources.) Mr. Lu and his businesses disputed
AFRINIC’s authority to enforce this provision of its customer
agreement and instead engaged in several legal actions in the
courts in Mauritius to prevent having to return the address
blocks to AFRINIC. <br class="">
<br class="">
As noted earlier, normally disputes are routine in nature and
are generally best resolved by the individual RIR, its
community, and/or the applicable legal & courts system.
However, among the motions that Cloud Innovation has made is one
that currently freezes AFRINIC’s accounts and thus has the
potential to hamper AFRINIC’s operations and ability to serve
both the community in Africa as well as the global community
that relies upon the Internet number registry system. ARIN
takes stability of the Internet number registry system very
seriously; and considering this risk, we are compelled to
provide this update to the ARIN community as it needs to be
aware of these developments and potential implications. I must
also share some of ARIN’s knowledge related to this matter as it
informs and directs our stance going forward. <br class="">
<br class="">
Prior Dealings with ARIN </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
ARIN has first-hand experience and insight into Mr. Lu’s
business practices in seeking IP number resources. Mr. Lu,
through Cloud Innovation, Ltd., received 6.2 million IPv4
addresses from AFRINIC in four different installments[1];
however, it is worth noting that in 2013,Mr. Lu, through his
company Outside Heaven, Ltd., also approached and sought over
one million IPv4 addresses from ARIN. ARIN ultimately refused to
provide any resources to him and his business for two main
reasons: First, during the review of his application to justify
the provision of Internet number resources, Mr. Lu refused to
provide ARIN with information that was repeatedly requested on a
number of occasions; and second, the information provided by Mr.
Lu was misleading and inconsistent. In addition, Mr. Lu had no
meaningful business establishment in the ARIN region; and based
on his own representations, it was clear the intended use of
the IPv4 addresses—if they were issued—was for business
activities outside the ARIN service region. Given the
seriousness of potentially false statements made to ARIN to
obtain number resources, ARIN attempted to engage in appropriate
due diligence with which Mr. Lu was unwilling to cooperate.
ARIN refused his application for IPv4 number resources.<br
class="">
<br class="">
Use of the AFRINIC Resources Out of Africa</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
ARIN has reviewed the utilization of the number resource blocks
issued by AFRINIC to Cloud Innovation and determined that the
overwhelming majority of the approximately 6.2 million
IP addresses issued have not been used within the African
continent. While there are cases of entire address blocks being
routed from an ISP in South Africa, Cloud Innovation also has
announced more specific routes from ISPs in Hong Kong and the
United States. Because more specific announcements take routing
precedence, this rendered the routing announcement at the
South African ISP moot and resulted in the vast majority of the
traffic usage being outside of Africa. Such a result is not
surprising as Cloud Innovation has indicated that they
predominantly “lease” the IP address space to other parties
rather than utilize it to provide connectivity
services directly.<br class="">
<br class="">
It is apparent that Cloud Innovation’s use of the issued number
resources is not being used for the purpose for which they were
issued; and as such, it appears that AFRINIC is within its
rights per the registration services agreement to reclaim them
so that they may be used for the benefit of the African
community. This is among the issues that will need to be
considered by the Mauritian court, as well as whether there was
fraud in the inception of the contractual process when the
resources were issued. Because AFRINIC is directly involved in
the litigation, it has quite properly limited its public
comments on the ongoing litigation with Mr. Lu and
his companies. However, Mr. Lu, and parties related to Mr. Lu,
have not limited their actions to the courts and have maintained
a steady stream of confusing and inconsistent misinformation to
the public that apparently distorts the issues to cast AFRINIC
in a most unfavorable light. Neither the AFRINIC nor the ARIN
communities should expect a quick answer from the courts, but
it will ultimately yield a ruling. In the interim, as procedural
motions are being sorted out, the community should not make
judgements about the court proceeding until the substantive
issues are addressed. <br class="">
<br class="">
Joint RIR Stability Fund </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
The RIRs have committed to mutual assistance, in kind and
financial, to ensure operational continuity of the Internet
number registry system; and in 2015, the RIRs established a
Joint RIR Stability Fund as a prudent contingency measure
towards long-term Internet number registry stability. The Fund
has been established through voluntary pledges of funds from
individual RIRs’ reserves, and upon an RIR’s duly submitted
request for support from the Stability Fund, the funds may be
made available to support that RIR’s registry and policy
development activities. There is in excess of $2M USD of
financial support collectively pledged from the RIRs for this
purpose; and in addition, support can also be provided in-kind
(e.g., through operational staff for support of operational
activities if needed.) <br class="">
<br class="">
If AFRINIC requests support in accordance with the Joint RIR
Stability Fund, ARIN will support such a request. Furthermore,
and without reservation, ARIN stands by its
unwavering commitment to support AFRINIC and will take any and
all measures necessary to ensure that neither the African
networking community, nor the global Internet number registry
system, is operationally impacted during this period. AFRINIC
was formed (and has accomplished so much) for the benefit of the
African networking community and ARIN stands with the community
in dealing with those who seek to disrupt or exploit it for
their own benefit.<br class="">
<br class="">
[1] <br class="">
<br class="">
154.80.0.0/12 (Issued 07/24/2013)<br class="">
<br class="">
45.192.0.0/12 (Issued 12/1/2014)<br class="">
<br class="">
156.224.0.0/11 (Issued 12/22/2015)<br class="">
<br class="">
154.192.0.0/11 (Issued 09/16/2016)<br class="">
<br class="">
===</div>
<br>
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