[ALAC] Fwd: Blog Post: Our Work to Make the Internet for Everyone Marches On

Fri May 1 21:40:08 UTC 2020

Sorry for cross-posting but I sent it to a limited list initially.

Our Work to Make the Internet for Everyone Marches On
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*BY ANDREW SULLIVAN*

Over the past several months the Internet Society has been working on a
transaction to sell Public Interest Registry (PIR), operator of .ORG and
other top-level domains, to Ethos Capital. Under PIR’s registry agreements,
the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) had to
consent to this indirect change of control. ICANN has now announced that it
does not consent to the transaction.

I am, of course, disappointed by ICANN’s decision, though I am pleased it
was finally reached. ICANN took much longer than it should have done to
vote on the transaction. In my view, ICANN stepped outside its remit by
acting as a regulator it was never intended to be.  What began as a routine
change of indirect control – the type ICANN has expeditiously approved on
multiple occasions in the past – resulted in months and months of review
and analysis. The outcome does not seem consistent with ICANN’s prior
decisions in similar cases. It should concern  the Internet community that
ICANN has shown itself to be much more susceptible to political pressure
than its limited mandate would recommend.

Nevertheless, ICANN has now rendered a clear decision. This brings to a
close a period of uncertainty that has been hard on everybody, and a
distraction from the important work of the Internet Society.

When the Internet Society Trustees were faced with a financial offer of
such magnitude from Ethos to purchase PIR, they had to consider it. It
would have been irresponsible to ignore it. When the Trustees accepted the
offer in a unanimous vote, they did so because they believed the
transaction would be good for the Internet Society, good for PIR, and good
for registrants in .ORG and all the registries PIR operates. It’s not very
often when an opportunity presents itself that has advantages for everyone.

When we announced the proposed transaction we were criticized, sometimes
bitterly, by people who were unhappy with it. I understood their concerns.
I still do.

Ethos made several good-faith attempts to allay those concerns. I believe
these measures would have worked and benefited the community, had they been
accepted; but others disagreed.

Some sought widespread consultations. We did not believe it would be
possible to undertake those consultations without doing a lot of harm to
PIR and hence to the registrants in .ORG. The months of uncertainty
regarding PIR’s future since the proposal was announced have been hard on
PIR’s employees.  An extended consultation without any clear picture of
what the possible outcomes might be would have been worse for PIR and for
.ORG. Neither the Trustees nor I believed we could undertake such a
consultation, and we do not believe that such a consultation would be a
good idea now.

Though ICANN has refused its consent, PIR has diligently adhered to its
responsibilities under its agreements with ICANN, and it will continue to
do so in its usual exemplary fashion. Now that we know that ICANN believes
its remit to be much larger than we believe it is, we can state this
clearly: neither PIR nor any of its operations are for sale now, and the
Internet Society will resist vigorously any suggestion that they ought to
be.

The Internet Society will focus on its core work: an Internet that is open,
globally-connected, secure, and trustworthy for everyone. At a time when we
are all reminded about how crucial the Internet is for society, our work
has never been more critical. We will continue to focus on that work in
support of our mission. To do it, we shall continue to rely on our partners
at PIR, who will maintain, as ever, its exemplary service to all those who
rely on .ORG and the other TLDs PIR operates.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Jon Nevett, Brian
Cimbolic, and Judy Song-Marshall at PIR for their continuous support. I
want also to acknowledge and thank the tireless commitment of the Ethos
team and their leader, Erik Brooks. Their commitment to do the right thing
by showing, through action, how they would be excellent stewards of .ORG
deserved better than the treatment they received at times.

Our work to make the Internet for everyone marches on.

*Our mailing address is:*
Key Points About .ORG
1775 Wiehle Ave Ste 100
Reston, VA 20190-5109

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