The Great .ORG Heist – Valerian's Realm

Sam Klein: Ethos Capital, a new commercial investment firm founded in the past few months in Boston, has 2 staff and only one major investment: a deal to acquire the 501c3 non-profit that currently runs the .org domain (valued at a few $B), for an undisclosed sum. This was initiated immediately after ICANN decided in May, over almost universal opposition, to remove the price cap on .org registrations with no meaningful price protections for existing or future registrants. This seems to violate a range of ethical, ICANN, ISOC, and non-profit guidelines. It is certainly the privatisation of a not-for-profit monopoly into a for-profit one, which will benefit ISOC and a few individuals by inconveniencing millions of others. I have questions: 1. Do affected parties have recourse? 2. Other than polite letters, is anything being done? (Maybe: Official complaints have been filed, but don’t expect results.) 3. Georgia Tech’s Internet Governance Project has pointed ideas for ICANN. (You can .. join ISOC as a member to take part in future decisions.) 4. Has anyone currently at ICANN + ISOC made substantive comment? (Yes: Richard Barnes, ISOC trustee and netizen, explains why he voted to sell .org.) Vint Cerf said: ‘Hard to imagine $60/year would be a deal breaker for even small non-profits.’) 5. How did we reach the point of Net pioneers embracing 95% profit margins? Tim Berners-Lee adds, “I’m very concerned about the sale of .org to a private company. If the Public Interest Registry ends up not being required to act in the public interest, it would be a travesty. We need an urgent explanation.”