In message <ADC89954-A8EE-4304-B4BC-74B12E74C58D@gmail.com>,
Suresh Ramasubramanian <ops.lists@gmail.com> wrote:

There was this little kerfuffle some years back

http://www.pcworld.com/article/174651/article.html

Thanks LOTS Suresh!  I didn't know anthing about this till now, but this
write-up is absolutely the funniest thing I've read all year so far,
although the parts I think are hilarious are probably not the same
ones that other people think are hilarious.  Examples:

    RIPE contends it was duped and that at the time, it was impossible
    to tell that the front company wasn't legitimate.

What's the expression?  "Either lead, follow, or get out of the f***ing way."

If RIPE NCC is unable to tell if a company is real or not, perhaps they
should farm out this part of their duties to a more experienced third-
party subcontractor.  (I'm available. :-)

   That essentially made RIPE part of a money laundering operation...

And here we are, 7 years later, and this has changed how, exactly?

   RIPE does take measure to vet new applicants, but in the case of RBN,
   "it's quite difficult to find those people if they are hidden behind
   those shell companies and fake fronts,"

For some reason this reminds me of those child psychology experiments
where researchers try to figure out at what age, on average, children
begin to grasp the fact that when a ball is moved so that it is behind
a visual barrier, it doesn't actually and physically disappear forever.


Regards,
rfg