AU WCL, 12/11 at Noon, Controversial Sale of .ORG Registry, The Conversation We Should be Having

[Amr Elsadr]

Hi,

Thanks for organizing this, Kathy. I watched the [YouTube recording](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEDeQt-gJNQ&feature=youtu.be) of the discussion. Unfortunately, audio wasn’t great throughout much of the discussion, but the parts that were clear were quite interesting; particularly those parts presented by Professor Benjamin Leff on the legal issues concerning the indirect change of control of the .org Registry.

Professor Leff’s contributions illustrated some legal dimensions to the sale, which to my knowledge have not been described publicly in much detail until this panel held its discussion. For those interested, I’d recommend putting some time aside to watch it.

I wonder if Benjamin Leff might be persuaded to write up a blog on his insight on the intersection between the sale of PIR and US/Pennsylvania law regarding non-profit organizations? Would be a helpful resource to circulate to interested parties.

Thanks again, Kathy.

Amr

> On Feb 7, 2020, at 12:13 AM, Kathy Kleiman <kathy at DNRC.TECH> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
> I have no love for how we conduct many of our discussions. We tend to take aim at each other and not the issues. We often to use our energies to fight internally when the issues we are concerned about require external speaking and writing. We have driven many good people away from our SG and Constituency, and that is a loss to ourselves and the ICANN Community.
>
> I share below a discussion I am organzing on the Sale of .ORG and the conversation I think we should be having -- a calm and respectful conversation among people we know and respect. We can explore the issues -- the sale of the .ORG nonprofit, protecting .ORG registrants, addressing concerns of .ORG Community -- without exploding each other.
>
> Please join us in person if you are in the Washington DC area (please register if you would like to have lunch). Or join us via live webcast (and the recording will stay up). Unfortunately the law school does not currently have remote participation capabilities (we are working on that for future events).
>
> My two cents.  Best, Kathy
>
> [http://media.campaigner.com/media/73/731490/PIJIP%20horizontal-1.jpg]
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Please join AUWCL, PIJIP, Internet Governance Lab, & WCL Intellectual Property Brief for a Conversation
>
> on
>
> The Controversial Sale of the .ORG Registry:  The Conversation We Should Be Having
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Tuesday, February 11, 2020
>
> 12:00 - 2:00 pm
>
> American University Washington College of Law
>
> Room NT01 Ceremonial Classroom
>
> Lunch Provided | Registration: [][https://tiny.cc/dot-org](http://go2.mailengine1.com/click/fof6-1qvr8o-m0ewbd-99zsah81/)[]http://go2.mailengine1.com/click/fof6-1qvr8o-m0ewbe-99zsah82/
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On November 13, 2019, the Internet Society (ISOC) announced its sale of the Public Interest Registry (PIR) to a private equity firm Ethos Capital for $1.1 billion.  The .ORG registry, run by PIR, supports 10 million .ORG registrants, including many of the world’s largest and smallest human rights and nonprofit groups.  Can a nonprofit (ISOC) sell a nonprofit (PIR)?  Are top-level domains still global public resources?  What can ISOC and PIR do to protect the online communication of millions of .ORG registrants?  What mechanisms could exist to address concerns of the .ORG community?  The answers could profoundly affect Internet speech for decades to come.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Fireside Chat Speakers:
>
> Andrew Sullivan
>
> President & CEO, Internet Society
>
> Mitch Stoltz
> Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation
>
> Benjamin Leff
> Professor of Law, Charitable and Non-Profit Organizations
> Washington College of Law
>
> Marc Rotenberg
> President, Electronic Privacy Information Center,
> Former Chair, Public Internet Registry (.ORG)
>
> Facilitator
> Kathryn Kleiman, IP & Tech Clinic, Washington College of Law and Former Director of Policy, Public Interest Registry (.ORG)
>
> [][Live Webcast](http://go2.mailengine1.com/click/fof6-1qvr8o-m0ewbf-99zsah83/) []
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property
> 4300 Nebraska Avenue
> Washington, DC District of Columbia 20016
> United States
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ncsg.is/pipermail/ncsg-discuss/attachments/20200215/a71e3ad5/attachment.htm>