23 November, 2019

Save .ORG!

PIR is getting sold to a private firm, and here's why it's bad

   The .ORG top-level domain introduced in 1985, has been operated by the
   [1]Public Interest Registry since
    1. The .ORG TLD is used primarily by communities, free and open source
       projects, and other non-profit organizations -- although the use of
       the TLD isn't restricted to non-profits.

   The Internet Society or ISOC, the group that created the PIR, has
   decided to sell the registry over to a private equity firm -- Ethos
   Capital.

What's the problem?

   There are around 10 million .ORG TLDs registered, and a good portion of
   them are non-profits and non-governmental organizations. As the name
   suggests, they don't earn any profits and all their operations rely on
   a thin inflow of donations. A private firm having control of the .ORG
   domain gives them the power to make decisions that would be
   unfavourable to the .ORG community:
     * They control the registration/renewal fees of the TLD. They can
       hike the price if they wish to. As is stands, NGOs already earn
       very little -- a .ORG price hike would put them in a very icky
       situation.
     * They can introduce [2]Rights Protection Mechanisms or RPMs, which
       are essentially legal statements that can -- if not correctly
       developed -- jeopardize / censor completely legal non-profit
       activities.
     * Lastly, they can suspend domains at the whim of state actors. It
       isn't news that nation states go after NGOs, targetting them with
       allegations of illegal activity. The registry being a private firm
       only simplifies the process.

   Sure, these are just "what ifs" and speculations, but the risk is real.
   Such power can be abused and this would be severly detrimental to NGOs
   globally.

How can I help?

   We need to get the ISOC to stop the sale. Head over to
   [3]https://savedotorg.org and sign their letter. An email is sent on
   your behalf to:
     * Andrew Sullivan, CEO, ISOC
     * Jon Nevett, CEO, PIR
     * Maarten Botterman, Board Chair, ICANN
     * Göran Marby, CEO, ICANN

Closing thoughts

   The Internet that we all love and care for is slowly being subsumed by
   megacorps and private firms, who's only motive is to make a profit. The
   Internet was meant to be free, and we'd better act now if we want that
   freedom. The future looks bleak -- I hope we aren't too late.

References

   1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Interest_Registry
   2. https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/rpm-drp-2017-10-04-en
   3. https://savedotorg.org/