The California Attorney General's Office has sent a letter to the Corporation for Domain Names and IP Addresses (ICANN) requesting confidential information regarding the sale of the .org domain zone to private equity firm Ethos Capital and suspending the deal.
The report states that the regulator's request is driven by a desire to "analyze the impact of the transaction on the non-profit community, including ICANN." A few days ago, ICANN made the request public and notified the Public Internet Registry (PIR), which intends to sell a registry of 10 million .org domain names to a private company. The letter also states that the state's Attorney's Office may file a lawsuit to obtain the data if the organization does not agree to provide it voluntarily.
The Prosecutor General's Office is interested in all electronic correspondence between the parties involved in the transaction, as well as other confidential information. In addition, the department asks to delay the completion of the transaction so that prosecutors have time to study its details. ICANN, in turn, asked the PIR to agree to extend the deal review process until April 20, 2020.
Recall that in November last year, the non-profit organization The Internet Society (ISOC), which is the parent company of PIR, announced its intention to sell the rights to the .org domain zone to the commercial organization Ethos Capital. News of the potential deal has alarmed the Internet community due to lack of transparency and concerns that the new domain zone owner will raise prices for their non-commercial clients. In addition, concerns have been raised that Ethos Capital may censor some sites in the .org domain zone, which are often critical of corporate entities.
Protesters gathered outside ICANN's headquarters in Los Angeles last weekend against the deal, handing the organization a 35-signature petition in protest. In addition, earlier this month, ICANN received a letter from six US senators expressing concerns about the upcoming deal.
The .org zone is one of the first top-level domains, which went live on January 1, 1985.
Source: 3dnews.ru