Why does my RIPE whois show someone else's abuse contact from 2003?

That's RIPE for you. Bureaucracy first, packets later.

I had to do this dance in 2017 for a /24 from a dead ISP. Took eleven weeks. The trick was emailing [email protected] directly with the assignment paperwork AND a signed LOA on letterhead. The web form is where requests go to die.

Also: Kowalski forwarding to a private list with commentary? That's not a ghost, that's a squatter. If he's in the EU, Fritz48's GDPR angle is your fastest weapon.

The phone prefix on the whois is Polish (+48). Poland has been EU since 2004, so GDPR applies fully. The data accuracy complaint is valid regardless of whether he consented in 2003—consent must be renewed, and legitimate interest does not cover perpetual publication of direct contact data.

I would add: do not contact Kowalski directly. Any interaction could be construed as negotiation, which weakens the regulatory angle. File the complaint, let RIPE handle the contact.

Hard disagree. I've fixed three stale RIPE records by just finding the old admin on LinkedIn and asking nice. One bought me a beer at RIPE 76 in Marseille.

Regulatory angle takes weeks. Human angle takes an afternoon. Why not both?

Both is correct. Parallel paths minimize time, which is the true cost.

However, I must correct: RIPE NCC is in Amsterdam, not Brussels. GDPR enforcement for RIPE database issues goes through the Dutch DPA (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens), not the Polish one, because RIPE is the controller. This changes nothing for bellaauc's strategy, but precision matters when citing regulation.

The 10-day figure Fritz48 mentioned is RIPE's internal SLA for data accuracy complaints, not a GDPR statutory deadline. The statutory deadline is one month, extendable to three. Do not confuse the two in correspondence.

Following this with interest. I had a similar stale record with APNIC for an Australian /23, took 8 months to resolve because the previous holder had gone into liquidation with no appointed receiver.

Bellaauc, do you know if the old company had a formal insolvency practitioner? Their documentation might shortcut RIPE's process if you can locate them.

Done. Also found the liquidator's final report—company wound up in 2020, all assets distributed. No mention of IP space. I've attached it to the ticket.

Useful distinction, thank you. I'll reference the RIPE SLA specifically and keep GDPR as the implicit leverage rather than explicit threat.

The Kowalski thing is stranger the deeper I look. The "private mailing list" he forwards to? It's a Yahoo Groups archive. Yahoo Groups shut down in 2020. So where's it going now?

This is why I asked about the mntner. If you can't get mntner access, your other option is proving the abuse-c object is defunct and requesting RIPE orphan it. But that needs evidence the contact is unreachable—bounces, dead phone, maybe a sworn statement.

The Yahoo Groups detail helps. If you can show the forwarding chain is broken, that's evidence the abuse-c is non-functional.

Wkwkwk this Kowalski is like ghost in machine. Very cheap horror movie.

I am find before also old abuse-c in RIPE, from company in Czech Republic. The man is die in 2015 but email still working because son is keep domain for memory. Very sad, very difficult to explain to RIPE.

Bellaauc you are try check if Kowalski is still alive? Maybe same story.

Wkwkwk very dark lah tifiucem

But maybe true. My first VPS is from 2015 with RamNode, I am never check whois also. Now I am scared to look. Contabo maybe have ghost too, who knows.

Bellaauc if you are need cheap server in Sydney, Contabo have now. Very good price, I am test ping from Surabaya 120ms. Not bad lah.

RIPE db accuracy is a running joke at every NANOG I've been to. The real problem is nobody gets paid to clean it up. Registrars have ICANN compliance pushing them, RIPE has... community shame?

I run inference workloads on a 4090 in my San Jose garage. The power bill is $340/month. That's not relevant, I just need you to understand my pain.