ICANN listened to public outcry—and , requesting additional information about the deal, including information about the owners of the dubious company Ethos Capital.
Let us recall that in November 2019, the closed joint stock company Ethos Capital, specially created for these purposes, non-profit organization The Internet Society (ISOC), including the operator of the Public Interest Registry (PIR), which manages the .ORG registry.
The deal was announced on November 13, 2019, and was planned to close in the first quarter. 2020. Thus, a registry of 10 million domain names. org and financial flow management were decided to be transferred to a commercial company. What's most interesting is that five months before this ISOC with the permission of ICANN , and the leadership of Ethos Capital included former influential ICANN officials.
But ICANN has the right to block the transfer of the .ORG service contract. This is provided for in section 7.5 .
December 9, 2019 on the official ICANN blog on the current status of the “proposed sale of the Public Interest Registry (PIR) to Ethos Capital.”
“Under the .ORG agreement, the PIR operator must obtain ICANN's prior consent before any transaction that would result in a change in control of 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 rejected our request. — Pursuant to the .ORG Registry Agreement and our review procedures, ICANN has 30 days to request additional information about the proposed transaction, including information about the party obtaining control of the registry, its ultimate parent, and whether they meet ICANN's accepted registry operator criteria (as well as financial resources, operational and technical capabilities)."
ICANN submitted a request to the PIR for additional information to ensure it "has a full understanding of the proposed transaction." Specifically, PIR must provide information regarding guarantees for the continued 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 live up to their promise to serve the .ORG community with over 10 million domain names. names
ICANN will carefully evaluate the responses, and then ICANN will have 30 additional days to agree or not agree to the request.
“To maintain trust in the .ORG community, we urge PIR, ISOC and Ethos Capital to be open and transparent throughout this process. Today we have sent a letter to both ISOC and PIR asking them to be clear and open in all their communications. We have indicated our willingness to publish the request and related materials related to ICANN's review, including the request for approval, request for additional information, and PIR responses. ICANN takes its responsibility to evaluate this proposed transaction very seriously. We will carefully and thoroughly evaluate the proposed acquisition to ensure that the .ORG registry remains safe, secure and stable,” the statement said.
Nepotism and corruption?
Industry publication a scheme in which they try to bring the .ORG domain zone into private ownership.
The company Ethos Capital itself was created immediately before the transaction. The domain name EthosCapital.com was registered at the end of October 2019.
The founder and chief executive of Ethos Capital is Eric Brooks, who most recently worked at the investment firm Abry Partners. A year ago, Abry Partners acquired Donuts, operator of the .guru, .software and .life domain zones and 240 other TLDs. Akram Atallah, former president of ICANN's global domains division, was hired as Donuts' executive director, and Donuts' co-founder took on the position of executive director of the Public Interest Registry. In addition, former ICANN Senior Vice President Jon Nevett works for Ethos Capital, and former ICANN Executive Director Fadi Chehad is an advisor to Abry Partners. Domain Name Wire.
Everything looks like a pre-planned operation to remove assets from ICANN specifically for their monetization
According to critics, ISOC deliberately prepared for the sale, and ICANN was misled. Community concerns were expressed by the public group Internet Commerce Association : “If you were led to believe that removing price caps on .ORG domains was a reasonable approach because the registry would remain in the hands of a non-profit foundation, you were clearly misled,” the letter said. “If your miscalculation in entering into a perpetual agreement without any price restrictions was based on the registry remaining in the hands of an organization serving the public interest, then the planned sale of the registry to a commercial firm should cause you to reconsider your approach.”
“Where is the ICANN board when it comes to protecting the interests of non-profit domain registrants?” - this is how the open letter of the public group Internet Commerce Association ends.
It appears that ICANN has listened to the public and has taken notice of the suspicious transaction.
ICANN is a non-profit organization founded in 1998. Its task is to coordinate and manage the DNS, maintaining Internet connectivity at the global level. The ICANN model is built on the principle of “multi-stakeholderism”, that is, it involves, in addition to states, representatives of business, academia and civil society: “ICANN proceeds from the fact that no one country, no one organization or no one person can appropriate or commandeer what we do,” so founding principles of ICANN CEO and Chairman Göran Marby. ICANN is also responsible for accrediting domain name registrars in international domain zones (.COM, .NET and others).
Only registered users can participate in the survey. , you are welcome.
Do you think ICANN will block the sale of the .ORG domain zone?
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65,2%Yes86
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34,8%No46
132 users voted. 35 users abstained.
Source: habr.com