[Chapter-delegates] What's going on? As presented, the sale of PIR should be rejected by the Board

Tue Nov 19 21:02:28 EET 2019

The way I understand it, there is a change of ownership as far as PIR is
concerned, but it is still PIR who is the contracted party.

The only issue that may arise as far as "ICANN law" is concerned is the
contractual notice provision.

There may be other legal issues related to US state-specific not-for-profit
law. Someone mentioned that in passing in other threads, but that's
somewhat outside of our remit anyway.

There was an understanding that .org was meant to have a broader purpose
than just making money. Now it looks it is headed the same way as every
other TLDs. I gather that this seems to be the most problematic issue in
all the comments on the list. But was this understanding enshrined in
anything beyond the previously-existing price caps? Or was it just some
loose commitment by ISOC/PIR?

I personally doubt any commitment regarding "reasonability" of price
increases, if such a commitment comes from an entity whose directors are
bound by corporate law (Delaware, as it would be in that case) to maximize
value (i.e. financial value) for shareholders.

Best,

On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 12:50 AM NPC SVG <npcsvg at gmail.com> wrote:

> One of my concerns, if this sale actually takes place: How is it possible
> to cap any unreasonable hike in renewal cost of existing domain names. Will
> existing holders be given a reasonable time perhaps 5/10 years before any
> hike in costs?
>
> Question is, should such a sale be subject to empowered community action?
>
> NPC-VIN
>
> On Sun, Nov 17, 2019, 18:04 Stephanie Perrin <
> stephanie.perrin at mail.utoronto.ca> wrote:
>
>> I think there have been many questions raised about this situation on our
>> list.  Do members wish to do something concrete, and if so, what?  I feel
>> somewhat constrained as I am a delegated representative for NCSG on the PIR
>> Advisory Board.  Unfortunately I had to miss a big meeting of the Advisory
>> Board in Washington DC recently, but I gather this sale was not discussed
>> there at the meeting so I did not miss any advance notice of this.
>>
>> I am not sure that a letter expressing our concerns would make an impact,
>> but I am happy to draft and convey such a letter if members think it would
>> be a good idea.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Stephanie Perrin
>> On 2019-11-16 07:52, Caleb Olumuyiwa Ogundele wrote:
>>
>> Obviously, you read my line of thought before I reposted that email.
>> However, at this point, fingers crossed. 🤞🤞🤞
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 12:46 PM dorothy g <dgdorothydg at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I would have been surprised if he had said anything different. I know
>>> you did not feel reassured by this statement.  In terms of what is widely
>>> accepted as good governance, there are many wrong things about this deal
>>> regardless of the eventual pricing implications.' Reasonably' priced is
>>> open to vast differences in interpretation.  What is reasonable for a
>>> multi-millionaire who made it selling domains is not the same for an NGO
>>> with problems making payroll for its two staff.  Also notice I did not say
>>> the deal is illegal. I do not have the right skills to make such an
>>> assessment but it does warrant some fresh thinking about what would
>>> constitute a robust regulatory framework and in my view may cause people to
>>> look at ISOC very differently as we go forward.
>>>
>>> best regards
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Nov 16, 2019 at 12:06 PM Caleb Olumuyiwa Ogundele <
>>> muyiwacaleb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> So I asked ISOC CEO above the .ORG pricing. Find his response below.
>>>>
>>>> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
>>>> From: Andrew Sullivan via Chapter-delegates <
>>>> chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
>>>> Date: Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 2:50 AM
>>>> Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] What's going on? As presented, the
>>>> sale of PIR should be rejected by the Board
>>>> To: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org <
>>>> chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Nov 14, 2019 at 04:21:24AM +0000, Caleb Ogundele wrote:
>>>>
>>>> > The implication might see to the increase in the purchase price of
>>>> dot ORG
>>>> > domains.
>>>>
>>>> You might have seen that anyway, because ISOC historically (and still!
>>>> this deal hasn't closed, remember!) has relied upon the money coming
>>>> from PIR to support ISOC's activities.  The thing that actually
>>>> constrains wholesale prices in .org is its market, not ICANN and not
>>>> PIR's status as a non-profit.  And note what both PIR has said about
>>>> the topic: "Our goal has always been to make .ORG accessible and
>>>> reasonably priced – and that will continue under our new ownership."
>>>>
>>>> Best regards,
>>>>
>>>> A
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Andrew Sullivan
>>>> President & CEO, Internet Society
>>>> sullivan at isoc.org
>>>> +1 416 731 1261
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> As an Internet Society Chapter Officer you are automatically subscribed
>>>> to this list, which is regularly synchronized with the Internet Society
>>>> Chapter Portal (AMS):
>>>> https://admin.internetsociety.org/622619/User/Login
>>>> View the Internet Society Code of Conduct:
>>>> https://www.internetsociety.org/become-a-member/code-of-conduct/
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dorothy Gordon
>>>
>>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ncsg.is/pipermail/ncsg-discuss/attachments/20191119/af27f7af/attachment.htm>