Doesn't it sound contradictory to be accused of a hostile takeover of something you already own?
The question is really... what is an IRC network, and what constitutes ownership of it? If all the people who own and run the IRC servers themselves change their banner from Freenode to Baznode, and tell people to start connecting to irc.baznode.com instead, then perhaps the entity that owns freenode.com doesn't really own an IRC network?
(I know that's not what happened, as Freenode-the-IRC-network is still running as-is, but just presenting it here given that it could happen based on how the servers are run.)
Looks like Lee legally owns something. I am not exactly sure what it is? Something much less than the entire IRC network. Some kind of account to something. First Wesley had revoked Lee's access, and then returned it. Anyway, when Lee asked for this access to whatever it is that he owns, it was seen as an attempt to a hostile takeover.
"I was locked out of the account"
"Finally, tomaw voluntarily handed back all of the accesses"
https://github.com/freenode/web-7.0/blob/main/content/news/2...
(edit: Maybe that when all this drama started, Wesley held on giving access again.)
Andrew Lee <rasengan> currently controls the freenode domains and is being accused of a hostile takeover. The network was sold to Andrew Lee by Christel Dahlskjaer <christel>, who was head of staff until she resigned in March 2021.
The other side seems to be the "staff", which seems to have mostly moved over to the libera.chat side now. Among them <tomaw>, who was elected as head of staff after <christel>'s resignation.
What I don't fully understand is the structure of the Freenode network. There's the domain/website, presumably under control of Andrew. There are the individual servers, which as I understand it are under the control of their independent owners/maintainers, some of which are also "staff" but others aren't. There is the nickserv database that is likely under control of Andrew Lee now, although it's unclear on what infrastructure it runs, who owns it, who pays for it, where it is, etc.