[proposed letter] NCSG Concerns About the Sale of the Public Interest Registry to Ethos Capital

[Caleb Olumuyiwa Ogundele]

Hello Ayden,

I made some suggestions, comments, and contributions to the letter.
However, the concern I have with the public auction is that it will give
more room to a capitalist who wins the bid and will do anything to make a
profit including selling registrants data to make a profit which we might
not be able to confirm except when caught. Even if they are not sold, how
do we know about government requests for such registrants data is published
in a transparency report?

Despite that, the purpose of still making PIR a funding opportunity, not
for profit ISOC will be defeated if sold to a capitalist who does not
believe in one free and open internet. Come to think of it, if we want a
not for profit who still relies on donors money to buy it, where will they
find over a billion dollars to raise money for the bidding?

Caleb Ogundele



On Tue, Dec 3, 2019 at 4:14 PM Amr Elsadr <aelsadr at icannpolicy.ninja> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I would prefer that NCSG not ask ICANN to withhold approval of the sale of
> PIR. I’m not entirely convinced that it can using 7.5, since effectively,
> there is no reassignment of control of the gTLDs under PIR’s management.
> However, this is just a technicality, really. The change that PIR will
> undergo (specifically, being transformed from a NFP to a For-Profit corp.)
> is basically as significant as a complete change of control.
>
> My problem with this letter is that it doesn’t really do anything for .org
> registrants, wether they are non-commercial registrants or not (and there
> are apparently far more “other” registrants who are not non-commercial in
> the .org space).
>
> I’m not aware of any tangible practices by PIR that differentiate it from
> any other Registry, except perhaps that its profits go to ISOC, instead of
> going to shareholders. If this change in ownership and NFP status can be
> leveraged to achieve greater protections for civil society interests, which
> I believe was meant to be part of PIR’s original mandate when it was
> assigned management of .org, then this is something I believe is worth
> pursuing. Who ultimately owns PIR, and who benefits from its revenue (ISOC,
> Ethos, or anybody else) is not as much of an issue to me. The welfare of
> civil society actors with .org domain name registrations is more important,
> imo.
>
> If there was ever a time when PIR would be willing to listen to its
> customer base on how to better serve them, I assume that time is now. It
> strikes me as irresponsible to not even try. ICANN withholding approval of
> the change of ownership is pretty much a nuclear option, and I see no added
> value to anyone, if that measure is resorted to. Not to ISOC, not to PIR
> and definitely not to PIR’s customers.
>
> If anybody is interested in pursuing additional rights for .org
> registrants, Milton made some interesting suggestions on what those might
> include here:
> https://www.internetgovernance.org/2019/11/25/what-to-do-about-org/. It
> isn’t an exhaustive list, but something to begin working with imo.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Amr
>
> On Dec 3, 2019, at 2:50 PM, Ayden Férdeline <icann at ferdeline.com> wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> I have drafted a letter outlining some concerns about the proposed sale of
> PIR to Ethos Capital. It is in a Google Doc here.
> <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GNSxNtZ7k-TtvQkpVXhlSABxi0JYVzDNHU7zZCQtiPU/edit?usp=sharing>
> In a nutshell, I am calling for ICANN to exercise its right in article 7.5
> of the .ORG, .NGO, and .ONG Registry Agreements to withhold its approval
> for ISOC to assign its rights and obligations to Ethos Capital. I hope that
> the NCSG might consider sending it. Feel free to make/propose edits
> directly into the document. If the NCSG does not feel comfortable sending
> it, perhaps interested individuals could sign on instead and we can send it
> off in our individual capacities? Thanks.
>
> Best wishes,
> Ayden Férdeline
>
>
>

-- 
*Ogundele Olumuyiwa Caleb*
*muyiwacaleb at gmail.com <muyiwacaleb at gmail.com>*
*234 - 8077377378*
*234 - 07030777969*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ncsg.is/pipermail/ncsg-discuss/attachments/20191203/7b608758/attachment.htm>