[anti-abuse-wg] Russian carding... no, Islandic carding... no Belizian carding!

I's sorry that I've been so busy that I did not have time to make my
positions about the verified.is web site, and also and more importantly,
about its containing 82.221.130.64/26 IP address block clear until now.
But I will try to do so now, and respond to some of what andre at ox.co.za
wrote at the same time.

To start, let me just clarify my feelings about a few things briefly:

    (1)  I agree entirely that the realm of domain names is not really or
         specifically of concern to RIPE, RIPE NCC, or to the subscribers
         to this list.  Domain names and their use and possible misuse
         is all clearly in the realm and authority of ICANN and the
         various TLD registries.  That is all crystal clear, and I
         certainly never intended to suggest or imply otherwise.

    (2)  Whatever does or does not constitute criminality is, exactly
         as <andre at ox.co.za> noted, very locale-dependent, and there are
         very nearly no things, however repugnant to ordinary civilized
         persons, that are not perfectly legal in some jurisdiction,
         somewhere on this vast planet.  (So we are in complete agreement
         about that too.)

    (3)  It is quite clearly now, and has been altogether clear for some
         long time now that the accepted common wisdom of the RIPE community
         is that RIPE and RIPE NCC does not act, and shall not act in a law
         enforcement capacity.  My personal feelings with respect to this
         are neither here nor there.  It is a widley accepted fact that
         RIPE is not the Internet Police.  I do not anticipate that fact
         changing any time soon, nor even within my lifetime.  I do accept
         this fact, and I do so without either question or dissent.

    (4)  I felt somewhat compelled to raise the issue of the VERIFIED.IS
         domain here for two reasons:

         (1) because it is such a self-evident and clear cut case of a web
         site which promotes and exploits activities that, I believe, more
         than 98% of the inhabitants of this planet would readily iabel as
         "criminal", and...

         (2) because the registration of *both* the domain name *and* also
         the containing /26 IP address block seemed to me to be so self-
         evidently obtained by means of abject fraud, perpetrated upon
         *both* the domain name registrar/registry on the one the one hand,
         and also and separately against RIPE and RIPE NCC on the other hand.

The self-evident criminality that appears in plain view, for all to see,
on the web site associated with the VERIFIED.IS domain is not the business
of RIPE or RIPE NCC.  It does however add some helpful context for my
primary issue, and my primary concern here.

My primary concern here is with the deliberate fraud that was perpetrated
by the registrant of the 82.221.130.64/26 IPv4 address block against both
RIPE and RIPE NCC.

I'm sorry that I did not make that primary concern clear sooner.

It is my view that this exact type of fraud, perpetrated against RIPE and
RIPE NCC should be restrained, condemned, and more actively and agressively
thwarted by RIPE NCC than it currently is.  I feel particularly strongly
about this in those cases... cases which seem to be more the rule that the
expection...  where the fradulently obtained RIPE number resources are
subsequently used in furtherance of separate objectively criminal activity.

The RIPE community and RIPE NCC can decide, and indeed have decided to
turn their collective backs on, and turn a blind eye to abject and
objectively obvious acts of criminality which can be dealt with... and
which arguably SHOULD be dealt with... by civil law enforcement authorities.
That's fine.  But it seems to me to be the very height of absurdity and
stupidity for RIPE and RIPE NCC to be so abundantly and excessively
timid, cautious, and lax about creating and enforcing reasonable rules
to thwart and deter fraud directed against RIPE itself that cases of
exactly such frauds become, as they are now, abundant and rampant.

In short, it is one thing to declare that you do not feel that you should
get involved when you see your neighbor's house is being robbed.  There are
arguably reasonable excuses why one might say this.  But it is an entirely
different matter to say that you won't even get up and get off your own
laurels when *your own* house is being robbed.  That is not a shining
example of prudent and well-considered self-restraint.  Rather, it is
a deplorable example of self-defeating lunacy.

I feel that RIPE's own house is being repeatedly robbed, based on the
many examples I've posted here of late, and that both RIPE and RIPE NCC
are effectively shrugging off all these cases and refusing to to get
involved, even when RIPE's own house is being robbed, time after time
after time.  I find this bizzare and indexplicable behavior on the part
of both RIPE and RIPE NCC to be amazing, absurd, and uterly unconscionable,
particularly for an organization that fancies itself as a "good steward"
of a set of limited resources.  (If this is the definition of good steward-
ship, then I suppose that we should also say that Mr. Trump is the modern
embodimemt of good taste and modesty.)

I think that I've clarified my feelings and positions above, and that
I've done so in a way that responds to all of the various points that
andre at ox.co.za raised in response to my original posting about the
VERIFIED.IS domain.  If I have failed at that however, I am ready and
willing to clarify my views further, e.g. if either andre at ox.co.za
or anybody else wishes me to do so.



Regards,
rfg


P.S.  A brief tweet from Belize to RIPE:

¿Usted habla ruso? ¿Eres tonto que 1 han estado buscando?