On Aug 29, 2021, at 17:41 , Masataka Ohta <mohta@necom830.hpcl.titech.ac.jp> wrote:
John Levine wrote:
I would be astonished if ICANN had a position. For one thing, they have no provision for dealing with competing IP registries since the issue has never come up
As
ICP-2: Criteria for Establishment of New Regional Internet Registries https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/new-rirs-criteria-2012-02-25-en 2) The new RIR must demonstrate that it has the broad support of the LIRs (ISP community) in the proposed region
if overwhelming majority, which means there is no competition, of LIRs in AfriNIC region request to abandon AfriNIC and to have an alternate RIR, ICANN should honor the request.
ICANN _MIGHT_ be able (under ICP-2) to honor the request to accredit a new RIR if one is created. ICANN has no authority under ICP-2 to do anything about any RIR once it is accredited. There is no process for revoking an RIR’s accreditation and there is no mechanism for any entity to do so that I am aware of.
For another, they are extremely allergic to anything that might even possibly involve them in a lawsuit. ICANN was established to protect governance structure (including RIRs, of course) of the Internet free from government (especially USG) interventions. As such, ICANN is expected to work to isolate African RIR operations from existing lawsuit.
I think you have that somewhat wrong. Regardless of what you or anyone else may think ICANN was established for, the simple reality is that ICANN’s only ability to engage on any of this is that granted to it by the various IANA functions contracts from the empowered communities (IETF, NRO/ASO/RIRs, and various Domain-Related organizations). (No, I don’t have all the exact details spelled out correctly here, it’s almost impossible to identify them). ICANN does not have any ability to isolate African RIR operations from an existing lawsuit. If you think I’m wrong, please identify the authority and mechanism by which they could possibly do so. Owen