Timeline of ISOC/PIR/Ethos Capital

Mon Nov 25 07:06:21 EET 2019

Hello All,

I’m responding on this NCSG thread, but the sale of PIR by ISOC to a private investment firm should be of concern to others, say in ALAC, RALOs, NCUC, perhaps even the Boards of ICANN, PIR and ISOC.

The transformation of .org and PIR would require some thorough investigative journalism. Ayden has provided a rough timeline. At some point, names and specific interests will need to be spelled out in relation to the decisions which led to this textbook case of specific interests overriding the public interest. 

On the other end of the scale, individuals, entitites and governments may wish to support the ‘’Contract for the web’’ initiative by Tim Berners-Lee and others, https://contractfortheweb.org/ . One can subscribe
- as an individual, https://contractfortheweb.org/endorse-the-contract/endorse-as-an-individual/ 
- or on behalf of an organisation, https://contractfortheweb.org/endorse-the-contract/endorse-on-behalf-of-an-organisation/ 

In February 2018, in an article I wrote for WikiTribune, I advocated exactly that kind of compact between Internet industries, public authorities and global users. These were my concluding lines:

''There is a need for global standards among today’s actors, not only in business and trade terms, but for the wider public interest. Sovereign states should exercise their authority to better regulate, investigate and correct. Governments often consult the private sector, but mainly on business aspects. A few months after his election, President Trump set up an advisory council of top US business leaders, which was disbanded less than a year later: its purpose was limited to making the US economy more competitive, and had no broader remit.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) brings together in Davos leaders from finance, industry, government, civil society and the media, providing a platform on a wide range of subjects, but as a forum it is not prescriptive, nor is it accountable. Now is an appropriate time for global corporations like Google and Tencent, Facebook and Alibaba, to set up a comprehensive list of best practices for the new era. Some sort of structured, transparent, accountable and global Advisory council, with an opting-in mechanism for corporations, governments and civil society entities, could provide useful advice in setting up global ethical standards across its membership. Social media have come under closer scrutiny because of the way their networks may be used by terrorist organisations, or by foreign powers to influence local politics as in the 2016 U.S. presidential election or in the U.K. referendum on Brexit. 

A first task for such a council would be to identify areas where there are widespread problems and malpractices (e.g. on privacy, on data protection), and to promote best practices, whatever their origin. In the 21st century, the strategies of state and non-state actors alike need to take into account, more than ever, the global public interest.’'

The full article, ‘’Global non-state global actors'' can be read here, https://www.wikitribune.com/wt/news/article/48999/ .

Jean-Jacques Subrenat.

Le 25 novembre 2019 à 04:53:05, Ayden Férdeline (icann at ferdeline.com) a écrit:

Dear all,

There have been so many different emails and articles floating around about the ISOC sale of PIR to a new, two-person investment firm with only one investment, it’s hard to piece together exactly what has happened and when. I have put together a timeline based upon what I have read, and I’m sharing it here in case you find it helpful. I think it raises more questions than answers, though…

2003

Andrew Sullivan is working at Affilias when it was then the vendor that supported the award of .ORG to ISOC

2012

Robert Beckstrom resigns as ICANN CEO, and ICANN COO Akram Atallah takes over as interim CEO before his childhood friend Fadi Chehadé joins as CEO.

Under Chehadé, Atallah becomes president of ICANN’s Global Domains Division.

2016

Chehadé leaves ICANN before his contract expired in order to start his own consulting firm and later joins Abry Partners. Abry has 3 partners, one of whom is Erik Brooks.

May 2018

ISOC suddenly appoints three new trustees to PIR.

Brian Cute, PIR’s CEO of 7 years, resigns suddenly, with no explanation. One of the new trustees takes over as interim CEO.

June 2018

Andrew Sullivan is appointed CEO of ISOC, starting in September.

September 2018

Chehadé helped Abry close their acquisition of a majority stake in Donuts. Brooks took a board seat at Donuts.

October 2018

Donuts co-founder and chief counsel Jon Nevett steps down. Brooks replaced the Donuts CEO with Akram Atallah.

December 2018

Nevett becomes the new CEO of PIR, responsible for .ORG

March 2019

ICANN proposes removing price caps from .ORG registrations. It is unclear whether PIR requested this, whether ICANN offered it unsolicited, or if PIR worked behind the scenes to make this happen under the guise of contract harmonization.

ICANN receives 3,300 comments uniformly opposed to the change and 6 in favor of removing price caps, and sides with the 0.2% minority.

May 2019

PIR responded to the comments with an open letter that said, “We are a mission-based non-profit, and would never betray the trust that you have put into .ORG and us.”

On 7 May, Chehadé registered the domain for EthosCapital.com.

On 13 May, ICANN decided to lift the price caps anyway.

On 14 May, Ethos Capital was incorporated as a new investment firm founded by Brooks. Ethos Capital has two staff: Brooks and Nora Abusitta-Ouri, a former ICANN SVP who later worked for Chehadé and was also a classmate of Chehadé.

November 2019

Out of the blue, ISOC announced that Nevett and Sullivan had approved the acquisition of PIR by Ethos Capital for an unspecified amount.

The only support for the deal that I have tracked has come from Vint Cerf, who for some reason appears to have access to non-public information about the deal (and was cited in ISOC’s press release as supporting the sale).

Best wishes,

Ayden Férdeline

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