The problem is Freenode was run without any proper legal and management structures in place.
Obviously a lot of its administrators ignored the fact that some admin could simply hock Freenode's domain names to a third party and when Andrew Lee purchases the domains with the intent of profiting from them, they start crying foul.
The blame for the whole debacle lies with Freenode's admins or the people involved in it who should have seen this coming from way off.
It is no different from some venture capitalists trying to profit from the .org domains.
