nanog mailing list archives

Re: An update on the AfriNIC situation


From: Tom Beecher <beecher () beecher cc>
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2021 07:21:41 -0400


AFRINIC has received clearance of enough money to cover their normal
expenses
for August and September. As such, there shouldn’t be any problems with
salaries
or “human cost” in those months. Hopefully given that reprieve, cooler
heads at
AFRINIC can prevail and some form of settlement can be achieved before
they run
out of money from that reprieve.


It's good that people are still being paid.

That being said, while some may have the opinion that AFRINIC's actions
have been 'objectionable' , others have the opinion that their actions were
justified and proper. Does it not concern you at all that AFRINIC may be
forced into a 'settlement' because they cannot access their funds due to a
very dubious claim of damages?

There are enough challenges with the internet in Africa to work through
already. We shouldn't encourage more difficulties by endorsing strongarm
tactics that prevent issues from being properly adjudicated in courts.

On Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 6:59 PM Owen DeLong via NANOG <nanog () nanog org>
wrote:

I regret the true human cost that Mark pointed out, yet I am fascinated
by the case and the arguments on both sides. The court will have their
work cut out for them.

That human cost came not from disagreement on the policies and
contract provisions, but from a vengeful action of financial bullying.

Not to put too fine a point on this, but what human cost?

There were exactly 3 employees that AFRINIC wasn’t able to pay in July,
including
the CEO (who is one of the major protagonists in creating this problem in
the first
place). I don’t know who the other two were.

Everyone else got paid for July.

AFRINIC has received clearance of enough money to cover their normal
expenses
for August and September. As such, there shouldn’t be any problems with
salaries
or “human cost” in those months. Hopefully given that reprieve, cooler
heads at
AFRINIC can prevail and some form of settlement can be achieved before
they run
out of money from that reprieve.

I saw my quota of questionable court decisions to automatically agree
with whatever is decided in this case, even if CI loses, but the
arguments from both sides will indeed be very interesting and useful
to close out loopholes in the system.

Only if they are ever able to be made public, which is a little iffy given
the Mauritian
court system. It may well be that only the final ruling is able to be made
public.

Owen



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