1   23 November, 2019
 2
 3Save .ORG!
 4
 5PIR is getting sold to a private firm, and here's why it's bad
 6
 7   The .ORG top-level domain introduced in 1985, has been operated by the
 8   [1]Public Interest Registry since
 9    1. The .ORG TLD is used primarily by communities, free and open source
10       projects, and other non-profit organizations -- although the use of
11       the TLD isn't restricted to non-profits.
12
13   The Internet Society or ISOC, the group that created the PIR, has
14   decided to sell the registry over to a private equity firm -- Ethos
15   Capital.
16
17What's the problem?
18
19   There are around 10 million .ORG TLDs registered, and a good portion of
20   them are non-profits and non-governmental organizations. As the name
21   suggests, they don't earn any profits and all their operations rely on
22   a thin inflow of donations. A private firm having control of the .ORG
23   domain gives them the power to make decisions that would be
24   unfavourable to the .ORG community:
25     * They control the registration/renewal fees of the TLD. They can
26       hike the price if they wish to. As is stands, NGOs already earn
27       very little -- a .ORG price hike would put them in a very icky
28       situation.
29     * They can introduce [2]Rights Protection Mechanisms or RPMs, which
30       are essentially legal statements that can -- if not correctly
31       developed -- jeopardize / censor completely legal non-profit
32       activities.
33     * Lastly, they can suspend domains at the whim of state actors. It
34       isn't news that nation states go after NGOs, targetting them with
35       allegations of illegal activity. The registry being a private firm
36       only simplifies the process.
37
38   Sure, these are just "what ifs" and speculations, but the risk is real.
39   Such power can be abused and this would be severly detrimental to NGOs
40   globally.
41
42How can I help?
43
44   We need to get the ISOC to stop the sale. Head over to
45   [3]https://savedotorg.org and sign their letter. An email is sent on
46   your behalf to:
47     * Andrew Sullivan, CEO, ISOC
48     * Jon Nevett, CEO, PIR
49     * Maarten Botterman, Board Chair, ICANN
50     * G�ran Marby, CEO, ICANN
51
52Closing thoughts
53
54   The Internet that we all love and care for is slowly being subsumed by
55   megacorps and private firms, who's only motive is to make a profit. The
56   Internet was meant to be free, and we'd better act now if we want that
57   freedom. The future looks bleak -- I hope we aren't too late.
58
59References
60
61   1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Interest_Registry
62   2. https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/rpm-drp-2017-10-04-en
63   3. https://savedotorg.org/