<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">ICYMI, Esther, Andrew, and Nora were on NPR yesterday.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">I transcribed.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><a href="http://isoc.live/pir/2020-01-21_WBUR_PIR.pdf">http://isoc.live/pir/2020-01-21_WBUR_PIR.pdf</a><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">Here are Esther's arguments: </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Cambria,serif"><b><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><i>Esther
Dyson </i></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><i>I think it affects our sense of justice, and
rightness. And we're concerned again, that it's like taking -- you don't take a
person and sell them. I mean, I, you know, I don't want to get into really,
yeah, it's not the same as slavery, but it is in that same direction. You take
something with a purpose that's beyond money, and you turn it into something
whose purpose is to make money for the shareholders, and that's a perfectly
legitimate business model. We just don't think they apply to .org, which was
founded as a not for profit, serves not for profits. And we'd like to make sure
that the .org name continues to mean something. When I founded ICANN, we had
the same discussion. Should there be more top level domain names? And for a
long time, we resisted, because we didn't. I mean, now if you're Coca Cola, you
have to register Coca Cola dot info, dot web, dot all the different countries,
dot food, dot healthy, and so those domain names have been cheapened, or
inflated, because you make more money by selling more domain names even though
each one is worth a little less.</i></span></p></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><i><br></i></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Cambria,serif"><b><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><i>Esther
Dyson </i></span></b></p>
<span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><i>Yeah.
So first I want to talk about the issue of prices. And forgive me, but this is
such a familiar story. Nobody's complaining that Facebook charges its users too
much. They're complaining about what Facebook does with their data. And, you
know, whether it's $10 or $20 per domain name, <a href="http://myname.org">myname.org</a> is really not the
point. The point is exactly what Nora says. Yes, we're going to make this thing
much more profitable. There's a couple of issues here. First of all, PIR right
now, Afilias, I don't know the details, but Afilias provides a very discount price
to PIR for its technical operation of .org,. You're going to find in fact that
the amount of money PIR has to spend would go up, this became a for profit,
because it would no longer be subsidized by the rest of the Internet. So the
question remains, as you already asked, Meghna, what are they going to do to
get a return on their investment? And, believe me, it's not PIR investing in
itself, it's going to be Ethos investing in PIR in order eventually to sell it,
because that's what private equity funds do. And that's what we're concerned
about. We're concerned about not getting straight answers. Nora's not the only
person who worked at ICANN during the time when the price caps were lifted, who
is now involved with Ethos. We don't know who else is involved. We don't know
who the investors are. We don't know what their mission is. And that's why
we're concerned. And that's why we're not asking, we don't want someone else to
buy it, we want ICANN to do its job, and to keep it as an organization that
serves its members. </i></span><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><i><br></i></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14.6667px">Joly</span></font></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Jan 22, 2020 at 8:53 AM Mueller, Milton L <<a href="mailto:milton@gatech.edu">milton@gatech.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<div class="gmail-m_-5361590846887405592WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Wisdom:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">You need to understand that Woodcock/PCH is an interested party with a conflict of interest; he is currently being paid to do things for PIR and would lose that
contract if the sale goes through. This scare talk about downtime is not independent technical analysis, it is a sales pitch. Take it with a grain (or boulder) of salt.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">I have read his economic “analysis” in his letter to the board and found it borderline comical. He claims (without any evidence) that the functions her performs
for .ORG are worth $30 million but that he provides the service for some much smaller number, around $300,000. So first he claimed that PIR would have to dramatically raise prices to replace him, now he is complaining that they aren’t spending enough. His
numbers are made up. <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Let’s realize we are in a propaganda war about .ORG. Esther Dyson, a venture capitalist who scorned the noncommercial constituency and opposed democratic elections
for ICANN board members, is succeeding in positioning herself to gullible American media as an advocate of noncommercial organizations and proponent of democratic governance of .org. That kind of big lie ought to tip us off that powerful players are positioning
themselves to grab something. <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Dr. Milton L Mueller<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Georgia Institute of Technology<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">School of Public Policy<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> NCSG-Discuss <<a href="mailto:NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" target="_blank">NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU</a>>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Wisdom Donkor<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, January 22, 2020 4:30 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" target="_blank">NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> A private equity firm wants to buy ‘.org’ for $1 billion. A Berkeley-based cooperative says, ‘not so fast’<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">In <a href="https://www.berkeleyside.com/2020/01/16/a-private-equity-firm-wants-to-buy-org-for-1-billion-a-berkeley-based-cooperative-says-not-so-fast?fbclid=IwAR27YNOQPMVyzX4zlu3FD_WjK9SqnbwhKIQOHZfAGEv9KHrK9A871UzUJIw" title="https://www.berkeleyside.com/2020/01/16/a-private-equity-firm-wants-to-buy-org-for-1-billion-a-berkeley-based-cooperative-says-not-so-fast?fbclid=IwAR27YNOQPMVyzX4zlu3FD_WjK9SqnbwhKIQOHZfAGEv9KHrK9A871UzUJIw" target="_blank">this
article</a> on the sale of PIR to Ethos Capital, the executive director of the Packet Clearing House states (emphasis added): <u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i>[Ethos Capital] said they’re entertaining bids with an operating cost of $330,000. <b>The current operating cost is just over $30 million, so that would be a 99% cut in spending. You don’t get 15 years of uninterrupted service for $330,000
a year.</b></i><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i>It’s really hard to predict future downtime, just like it’s hard to predict the effect of earthquakes on buildings. There can always be a bigger cyberattack in the future, so being prepared means being responsible and spending the money.</i><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i>But insofar as we were able to estimate, you get about 3.12 days of downtime per year. Multiply that times every nonprofit in the world. We’re talking about Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross. We’re talking about the IATA that
does international air traffic control. <b>Do we really want international flights grounded for three days a year so [Bain founder and U.S. Senator] Mitt Romney can make a few hundred million more? Not a reasonable societal tradeoff.</b></i><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Once you’ve axed 99% of your spending you also need to jack up the prices, in a Martin Shkreli-style maximization of profits. Then, how else do you make money? Let’s say somebody goes to investigate contraception or abortion. Regardless
of where they wind up, whether that’s Planned Parenthood or some crazed right-wing church website, either way, that’s going to be a .org. The feed of everybody who went looking for those things is going to be for sale. <b>Ethos has already bought five companies
to monetize the private information they’d be harvesting if they got .org.</b></i><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I am sharing these extracts for information purposes. <u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>WISDOM DONKOR</b><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.5pt">President & CEO</span><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.5pt">Africa Open Data and Internet Research Foundation</span><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.5pt">P.O. Box CT 2439, Cantonments, Accra |
<a href="http://www.aodirf.org" target="_blank">www.aodirf.org</a> / <a href="http://www.afrigeocon.org" target="_blank">
www.afrigeocon.org</a> </span><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.5pt">Tel: +233 20 812 8851</span><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.5pt">Skype: wisdom_dk | Facebook: kwasi wisdom | Twitter: @wisdom_dk </span><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">__________________________________________________<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.5pt">Specialization:</span><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.5pt">E-government Network Infrastructure and E-application, Internet Governance, Open Data policies platforms & Community Development, Cyber Security, Domain Name Systems, Software Engineering, Event Planning
& Management, </span><u></u><u></u></p>
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