Folks, It's almost Friday...
I just received an email from APNIC to tell me that a class C IP block I've
owned for 27 years is now under their control and I will be charged
$500/year to keep this *historical* resource that was created before APNIC
existed. See Maintenance Fee Change
<https://help.apnic.net/s/article/historical-fee-change>. Has anyone else
received a similar notification?
My thoughts were: this is either kidnapping, extortion or a "protection
racket", or all three.
I'm reminded of the 1990s when Melbourne IT were effectively selling the
dictionary for a minimum ~$135 per domain name, and special words like
"realestate" or "sales" etc were up for the highest bidder at eye-watering
prices. Ah, the days of the Internet boom...!
I'd like to write an official complaint about APNIC's money-grubbing scam
to someone, but who? The ACCC is a toothless tiger. There is a federal
ombudsman, but would APNIC be on their radar?
Cheers,
*Greg K*
