[Chapter-delegates] Join our call to stop the sale of .org

[Andrew Sullivan]

Dear colleagues,

On Mon, Nov 25, 2019 at 07:05:17PM -0500, Alexander Blom via Chapter-delegates wrote:

> In May 2002, ICANN formulated a number of criteria for the reassignment of
> the .org Top Level Domain

PIR has an agreement with ICANN.  ICANN adopts policies on the basis
of ICANN consensus, and the agreement with PIR was subject to that
process.  So I think it is strange to talk about the reassignment
process from 2002 and not to pay attention to any of the other changes
to the registry market that have been undertaken since then. 

> We believe that the 2019 decision of ISOC Global to sell PIR to private
> equity firm Ethos Capital is not in line with ICANN’s criteria from 2002
> and the subsequent promise from ISOC Global.

Why do you believe that?  ISOC created PIR to deliver value to .org
registrants, and subsequently supported PIR in the creation of various
IDN TLDs and the NGO/ONG pair.  It worked: PIR is a viable operation
and Ethos wants to buy the whole thing, not just the ability to
operate those registries.  We believe that people who acquire another
company at sigificant cost do not want to tear it down, and what we
understand about the investment strategy suggests that to us as well.
So we believe that the ongoing operation of PIR will in fact continue
in support of its registrants, because that's who will need to be
satisfied in order to continue using the services of PIR.

> Despite ISOC Global's assurances to the contrary, we share the misgivings
> of the international community about giving a single privately owned entity
> the power to raise tariffs, implement rights protection mechanisms possibly
> leading to censorship, and suspend domains at the request of local
> governments.

These issues are unrelated to the proposed transaction, and are in
fact part of the existing agreement that PIR has with ICANN.  That
agreement emerged from the ICANN community and its processes.

There is a good argument to be made that ISOC is in a difficult
position in talking about the way ICANN operates because no matter
what we say, we appear conflicted due to our ongoing dependence on
PIR.  If we are critical, it suggests that we are fighting with ICANN
for some sort of benefit to ourselves.  If we are supportive, people
say that we must be supporting something inside ICANN for our own
pecuniary advantage due to PIR.  And if we are silent, people note it
and attribute it to whatever financial advantage we might get in the
result.

The financial link between the Internet Society's budget and the TLD
registry business has been the subject of some commentary over the
years, and this transaction would break that link while yet providing
the Internet Society the money it relies upon today.  That money today
goes in part to the support of chapters, to the support of connecting
the unconnected, to supporting our interconnectivity work in places
that are still suffering from poor transborder links and trombone
routing.  It goes today to our Foundation efforts such as the Beyond
the Net grants, and the financial support of the IETF, IGFs both
globally and locally, and schools of Internet governance.  Ensuring
that support is in place for our community in perpetuity is a really
significant advantage.  The Internet is much more than the domain name
system or, especially, the TLD registry market.

I believe that this transaction is good for Internet Society chapters
and members.  I also believe it is good for the Internet and its
advancement.  I even believe it is good for .org, because it will have
an investor who wants to build on the prior success of PIR and make
PIR stronger -- an investment that ISOC can't make because we are
dependent on the income from PIR's operation.

I hope you will reconsider your call.  I will be available to speak to
the ChAC at its next call if the ChAC wants me to -- in any case, I
will be on the phone at that meeting if I am welcome.

Best regards,

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
President & CEO, Internet Society
sullivan at isoc.org
+1 416 731 1261