[governance] PIR Case/or the .org sell
Brett Solomon
brett at accessnow.org
Sun Dec 1 15:57:10 EST 2019
Hi,
I would strongly encourage IGC considers a "stop the sale" approach. Or as
an alternative, an approach which demands ISOC's full transparency
(including 1. releasing all board and other documentation on the sale and
2. answers to the range of questions listed above), BEFORE any further
steps are taken to conclude the proposed sale.
My own preference is to be firm, with a statement to 'stop the sale' and at
the same time demand full transparency of ISOC that lead them to this
point. Demanding both, to my mind, is the appropriate thing to do at this
juncture.
I think it's also important that we recognize that the sale *has not yet
happened*, that ISOC can reverse the decision as requested by its Dutch
Chapter <https://isoc.nl/nieuws/statement-against-the-sale-of-dot-org/> (and
now supported by the Swiss Chapter), the transaction will not conclude
until the first quarter of next year
<https://www.internetsociety.org/news/press-releases/2019/ethos-capital-to-acquire-public-interest-registry-from-the-internet-society/>
at
the earliest as ISOC indicated, and that ICANN can terminate any agreement
<https://www.internetgovernance.org/2019/11/25/what-to-do-about-org/>under
Article 7.5 of the Registry Agreement. Therefore due diligence questions
should also be sent to ICANN ahead of any approvals and BEFORE ISOC
proceeds any further with the sale.
Thanks to all those who have been working on these issues for some time!
Brett
PS Here are the notes
<https://www.accessnow.org/cms/assets/uploads/2019/11/Save.ORG-Town-Hall-IGF_27-November-2019.pdf>
from the Public Town Hall at the IGF on Thursday, Access Now's call
for stopping
the sale
<https://www.accessnow.org/access-now-calls-on-icann-and-internet-society-to-halt-the-sale-of-org/>,
Tim
Berners Lee's tweet calling the proposed sale a 'travesty
<https://twitter.com/timberners_lee/status/1199752059534413824>' and news
that the Girl Scouts <https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50515786> have
called for the sale to be stopped.
Brett Solomon
Executive Director
Access Now | accessnow.org
@solomonbrett
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On Sun, Dec 1, 2019 at 1:59 PM Imran Ahmed Shah <governance at lists.riseup.net>
wrote:
> Dear(s) Sheetal and All
>
> Thanks for summarizing the question to be submitted, I would like to add
> few comments:
>
> 1. Although transparency has been a basic requirement for non-commercial
> organizations in public interest, however, only questioning about
> transparency could help in solving the puzzle (what, why, how) but does not
> solve the matter of selling non-commercial entity to the commercial one. If
> the ISoc BoT takes a decision on transparency by opening the deal of
> selling it, how it will solve the issue. Actually, ISOC sold PIR, while
> every one is discussing the registry .Org managed by PIR. dot ORG Registry encapsulated
> with in this sale of PIR. I suggest we have to address the matter
> differently.
>
> 2. There had been suggestions from few of the friends for ensuring the Price-cap
> regulation, how a commercial entity will accept it, or how long
> non-commercial entity will remain under bindings? How they can leave the
> competitive market and open competition aside?
>
> 3. By the way, current market price of .org domain name is already double
> of the price of .com, why? has CS taken any action? and why not half
> instead of double?
>
> 4. Price Increase will eliminate many of the public interest activities,
> "not for profit organizations", "non-commercial entities", "digital
> presence of work for good reasons".
>
> Here, I would like to quote a practical example of the ISOC Pakistan
> chapter.
> "ISOC Pakistan chapter blog (its digital presence) was established on Ning
> (initially free platform), it has been active for years and community
> members were engaged for IG related discussion (taking advantage of blog).
> At a stage, Ning suddenly applied few $ fee, in a result the blog was
> disabled and chapter has no membership records, ISoc removed chapter's
> membership and finally it is disappeared.
>
> 5. ISOC was getting millions from PIR, why it is being sold?
>
> 6. In my point of view, .org should remain under the stewardship,
> control/, administered by non-commercial entities and should have to be
> operated by not for profit entities.
>
> 7. I am afraid of this kind of practice, "the encapsulated sale of TLD's
> Registry". Think.... if the same practice is exercised by the other "Public
> Interest and community related" s/g/TLD's Registry Owners.... In 2009, I
> have said in ICANN;s Public Forum (Seoul Meeting) that their action will be
> starting a big Gambling Game.
>
> Best Regards
>
> Imran Ahmed Shah
>
> Consultant/ Advisor
> TLDians.Org
> Urdu Internet Council
>
> On Sunday, 1 December 2019, 21:44:39 GMT+5, Sheetal Kumar <
> sheetal at gp-digital.org> wrote:
>
>
> Dear Ayden, all,
>
> Thanks for your responses! It seems to me that if we're going to agree on
> anything, it's the lack of transparency that we can agree needs to be
> rectified. I've slightly reworded the below in light of the recent
> suggestions and remarks.
>
> What do others think about Sylvain's suggestions of asking about setting
> up a commons PIR (is this possible/feasible?) and of sending this also to
> ISOC's BoT and CEO? Do you have any others?
>
>
> *As members of a network which encompasses many non-commercial
> organisations, we are concerned about the lack of transparency regarding
> the sale of .ORG. When the board discusses the sale of .org, we request
> that these questions are considered in the due diligence process: *
>
>
>
>
> *- What does the Board intend to do in order to protect the existing
> millions of .ORG registrants?- After the changes to the .ORG contract to
> preserve existing rights of .ORG registrants, how else does the Board
> intend to ensure the sale of PIR (this new steward of .org) will act on
> behalf of the public interest and the world community of noncommercial,
> civil society groups in the world?- What are ICANN's obligation to protect
> those organizations engaged in missions of "public interest around the
> world?" - How does the Board respond to allegations/concerns regarding
> possible conflict of interest in transference of stewardship to Ethos
> capital?*
>
>
> *We request answers to these questions in the spirit of building trust
> among NGOs and the non-commercial constituency more generally and those who
> play a key role in stewarding the Internet.*
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, 30 Nov 2019 at 17:58, Ayden Férdeline <ayden at ferdeline.com> wrote:
>
> While I agree these are questions for the ISOC Board of Trustees, I
> believe they are *also* questions for the ICANN Board. I expect that the
> ICANN Board will not respond to them, but I think they could - and should -
> and I encourage us to place pressure on both parties to take these
> questions and the sentiments behind them seriously.
>
> ICANN, in particular, does need to address at least the perception that
> there is a revolving door of insiders who are behind this and other deals.
> And ISOC needs to be more transparent about what due diligence it did
> before entering into the arrangement to sell PIR, and what mechanisms it
> has put in place (if any) to protect .ORG, .NGO, and .ONG registrants.
> Thanks.
>
> Best wishes, Ayden Férdeline
>
>
>
> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
> On Saturday, 30 November 2019 13:34, James Gannon <james at cyberinvasion.net>
> wrote:
>
> These are questions for the ISOC Board not the ICANN board.
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 30 Nov 2019, at 13:09, Sheetal Kumar <sheetal at gp-digital.org> wrote:
>
>
> Dear all,
>
> What do people think about sending a letter to the ICANN Board with a
> series of questions in order to get more transparency? Bruna and I
> discussed this, and chatted to others, and are wondering what you think of
> this approach. As the Board will meet and discuss the sale as part of a due
> diligence process, we thought it might be a constructive approach to
> request they consider and answer certain questions.
>
> It would be great to hear your views on this approach and on the
> questions. See below:
>
> *When the board discusses the sale of .org, we request that these
> questions are considered in the due diligence process: *
>
>
>
>
> *- What does the Board intend to do in order to protect the existing
> millions of .ORG registrants? - After the changes to the .ORG contract to
> preserve existing rights of .ORG registrants, how else does the Board
> intend to ensure the sale of PIR (this new steward of .org) will act on
> behalf of the public interest and the world community of noncommercial,
> civil society groups in the world? - What's ICANN's obligation to protect
> those organizations engaged in missions of "public interest around the
> world?" - How does the Board respond to allegations/concerns regarding
> possible conflict of interest in transference of stewardship to Ethos
> capital*
>
> Best
> Sheetal
>
> On Fri, 29 Nov 2019 at 02:36, Sylvain Baya <governance at lists.riseup.net>
> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> Le jeudi 28 novembre 2019, Bill Woodcock <woody at pch.net> a écrit :
>
> > they can (even without sourcing their affirmation) then note that the
> > minority of *non-commercial* [1] Internet Community is about to be
> *eliminated* by their
> > 'well intended' *big deal*.
> >
> > Why ?
> > ...i guess that 1% of 10M (domain names) +=> the non-commercial [1]
> world is under
> > the pressure of commercial world in the Internet, even in .ORG
> registrations they are
> > still oppressed by 99% of 10M
>
> None of the above parses. Please try again, with simpler construction.
> You can break it out into as many sentences as you like, but please try to
> make each one encapsulate exactly one thought. Else nobody is going to be
> able to engage in a constructive conversation with you.
>
>
> ...what's the point please, dear Bill ?
> Do you really want to convince me without argumenting ?
>
> Shalom,
> --sb.
>
>
>
> -Bill
>
>
>
> --
>
>
> --
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> --
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>
>
>
> *Sheetal Kumar*
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> --
>
>
> *Sheetal Kumar*
> Senior Programme Lead | GLOBAL PARTNERS DIGITAL
> Second Home, 68-80 Hanbury Street, London, E1 5JL
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