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

[James Gannon]

ICANN is not selling anything. ISOC is.

---
James Gannon

From: NCSG-Discuss <NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU> on behalf of "Vaibhav Aggarwal, Catalyst & Group CEO" <va at BLADEBRAINS.COM>
Reply to: "Vaibhav Aggarwal, Catalyst & Group CEO" <va at BLADEBRAINS.COM>
Date: Wednesday, 4 December 2019 at 20:40
To: "NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" <NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
Subject: Re: [proposed letter] NCSG Concerns About the Sale of the Public Interest Registry to Ethos Capital

Greetings,

In my opinion, this is a bad faith acquisition. It is easier to acquire .ORG by probably inducing them and some others / board members to approve of the sale. Is there any way to get the Sale Audited by Law Enforcement ? The answer should be NO. In my opinion, for a buyer, it is an opportunity to do market consolidation on a established brand and acquire a item without having to be liable to explain to law enforcement later. You have to also see the time of the sale. It is a time where ICANN is a 100% private body now. It is an excellent time for a backdoor entry in the game, much easier in terms of agreements & paperwork, rather than starting a fresh as a registry. PLU no scrutiny. So I wonder what is the background of the deal. What is the origin of the deal and who are behind the Ethos Capital. Yes Capitalism but from a business perspective, it is a perfect opportunity to be a part of the Policy Globally in One Shot. No Questions Asked. Be it slush money getting legit or just legit money.

I have never seen such silence maintained by ICANN with no method for the community to perform a legal scrutiny on the deal. How will this be accountable. In fact, this deal will change the landscape.

Best regards,

-VA


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On Dec 4, 2019, at 1:50 AM, Ayden Férdeline <icann at ferdeline.com<mailto:icann at ferdeline.com>> wrote:

Hello. I am not proposing that ICANN stop the sale. If Ethos Capital wishes to acquire the transferable assets of PIR at market value, they can. But what I believe ICANN can control is the transfer of the registry agreements. If PIR is undergoing a change in controllership (and selling the organization does constitute such a change, I believe) this is an opportunity for ICANN to intervene. If this is not the case, I would like to understand why you think that way. I appreciate some think this may not be effective because the Board won’t act, but being unwilling to act is different to being unable to act.

Best wishes, Ayden Férdeline


On Tue, Dec 3, 2019 at 20:30, Liz Orembo <lizorembo at GMAIL.COM<mailto:lizorembo at GMAIL.COM>> wrote:

ICANN has no authority to stop the sale of PIR to a private entity.  But this sale is unethical from multiple dimensions and among other things will have a negative impact on the future of Multistakeholderism in the IG ecosystem.

I bet no one saw this coming, and mixed with ISOC being too familiar at the time of auctioning contributed to this legal loophole.

As NCSG I don't think our efforts to influence ICANN broad to halt this sale will yield anything.  But surely the board is free to issue an advise against the sale. The silence makes it seem like everything is okay or at least it is supporting this madness.

On Tue, Dec 3, 2019, 21:19 Mueller, Milton L <milton at gatech.edu<mailto:milton at gatech.edu>> wrote:
I’ve reviewed this letter and I think it takes the wrong approach and should be scrapped.
It is basically asking ICANN to just stop the sale, which it has no real authority to do, and does not offer a viable set of protections for .org registrants.
It’s about expressing anger and not about constructive response.


Dr. Milton L Mueller
School of Public Policy
Georgia Institute of Technology
[IGP_logo_gold block_email sig]



From: NCSG-Discuss <NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU<mailto:NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>> On Behalf Of Ayden Férdeline
Sent: Tuesday, December 3, 2019 7:51 AM
To: NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU<mailto:NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
Subject: [proposed letter] NCSG Concerns About the Sale of the Public Interest Registry to Ethos Capital

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



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