The ICANN corporation has listened to public protests and has suspended the sale of the .ORG domain zone, requesting additional information about the deal, including information about the owners of the questionable company Ethos Capital.

Recall that in November 2019, the closed joint-stock company Ethos Capital, specifically created for these purposes, agreed to purchase the nonprofit organization The Internet Society (ISOC), including the operator Public Interest Registry (PIR), which manages the .ORG registry.

The deal was announced on November 13, 2019, and was planned to be closed in Q1 2020. Thus, the registry of 10 million .org domain names and the management of financial flows were decided to be given to a commercial company. Interestingly, five months prior to this, ISOC, with ICANN's permission, removed any restrictions on the maximum price of .ORG domains,, and influential former ICANN officials were found in Ethos Capital’s management.

However, ICANN has the right to block the transfer of the contract for servicing .ORG. This is provided for in Section 7.5 of the registry agreement between Public Interest Registry and ICANN..

On December 9, 2019, ICANN's official blog published information about the current status of the proposed sale of Public Interest Registry (PIR) to Ethos Capital.

"According to the service agreement for the .ORG zone, the PIR operator must obtain ICANN's prior consent before any transaction that would result in a change of control over the registry," the official statement said. "Typically, such requests to ICANN are made confidentially; we asked PIR for permission to publish the information, but they denied our request. — In accordance with the .ORG Registry Agreement and our review procedures, ICANN has 30 days to request additional information about the proposed deal, including information about the party acquiring control over the registry, its ultimate parent organization, and whether they meet the criteria set by ICANN for a registry operator (as well as financial resources, operational and technical capabilities)."

ICANN has requested additional information from PIR to ensure it has a "full understanding of the proposed deal." In particular, PIR must provide information on the guarantees for the continuous operation of the .ORG registry, the nature of the proposed transaction, how the new ownership structure will adhere to the terms of the current agreement with PIR, and how they intend to fulfill their commitments to serve the .ORG community, which encompasses over 10 million domain names.

ICANN will carefully evaluate the responses, and then will have an additional 30 days to approve or deny the request.

"To maintain trust within the .ORG community, we strongly urge PIR, ISOC, and Ethos Capital to act openly and transparently throughout this process. Today we sent a letter to both ISOC and PIR asking them to be clear and open in all their communications. We expressed our willingness to publish the request and related materials concerning ICANN's review, including the approval request, the request for additional information, and PIR's responses. ICANN takes its responsibility to assess this proposed transaction very seriously. We will thoroughly evaluate the proposed acquisition to ensure that the .ORG registry remains secure, reliable, and stable," the official statement said.

Nepotism and corruption?

Industry publication describes the scheme under which the .ORG domain zone is being moved to private ownership.

The company Ethos Capital itself was established just before the transaction. The domain name EthosCapital.com was registered in late October 2019.

The founder and CEO of Ethos Capital is Eric Brooks, who until recently worked at investment firm Abry Partners. A year ago, Abry Partners acquired Donuts, the operator of the .guru, .software, and .life domain zones, along with 240 other TLDs. Akram Atallah, the former president of ICANN's global domains division, was invited to be the CEO of Donuts, while a co-founder of Donuts took on the role of CEO of Public Interest Registry. Additionally, former ICANN Senior Vice President Jon Nevett works at Ethos Capital, and former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé is an advisor to Abry Partners. writes Domain Name Wire.

Everything seems like a premeditated operation to withdraw assets from ICANN specifically for monetization.

According to critics, ISOC deliberately prepared for the sale, misleading the ICANN organization. The Internet Commerce Association, a public group, expressed community concerns. in an open letter (pdf) to ICANN.: "If you were led to believe that lifting price caps on .ORG domains was a reasonable approach because the registry would remain in the hands of a non-profit foundation, you have clearly been misled, – the letter states. – If your miscalculation in concluding an indefinite agreement without any price caps was based on the assumption that the registry remains in the hands of an organization serving the public interest, then the planned sale of the registry to a commercial firm should make you reconsider your approach."

"Where is the ICANN board when it comes to protecting the interests of non-profit organizations that have registered domains?" – thus concludes the open letter from the Internet Commerce Association.

It seems that ICANN listened to the voice of the public and paid attention to the suspicious deal.

The non-profit organization ICANN was established in 1998. Its task is to coordinate and manage the DNS, maintaining internet connectivity on a global level. The ICANN model is built on the principle of 'multi-stakeholderism', meaning it includes, in addition to governments, representatives from business, academia, and civil society: "ICANN believes that no single country, organization, or individual can assume or appropriate what we do," – said explains CEO and head of ICANN Göran Marby. ICANN is also responsible for accrediting domain name registrars in international domain zones (.COM, .NET, and others).

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