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

[Sam Lanfranco]

I too watched the session so kindly organized by Kathy and crew, and a big
thanks.  

	There were three take aways for me. One involves the discussion mentioned
by Amr regarding Professor Benjamin Leff’s comments on the legal issues
concerning the sale of PIR and US and Pennsylvania law regarding the sale
of non-profit organizations.  

	First: there needs to be an expanded discussion to see if there is any
scope under US Tax and Pennsylvania non-profit law for protecting a public
interest remit for the .org registry, no matter who buys it.
	Second: I am concerned with the comments suggesting that the .org registry
should sell for much more than S1.13B USD. The higher the sale price the
more the .org registry will be shackled with  debt. Debt must be serviced
out of the profits of the registry, before owners receive any profits,
putting great pressure on the registry owners to find ways to generate more
revenue. As it is, in this period of low interest rates, as interest rates
rise (as they will) any debt carried by the registry owner will become
increasingly costly.
	Third: It remains clear that ICANN has scope for adjusting the terms of
the registry contract in ways that address some of the concerns expressed
by stakeholders and stakeholder groups. It is disturbing (distressing) that
as a multistakeholder organization ICANN had not been forthcoming about
intentions and has not initiated discussions with engaged stakeholders
about possible contract options.  

	I stress that there are two potential bad outcomes here: 

	The first bad outcome is a sale with no protections against future .org
registry business plans that threaten the public interest, with financial
and other risks to the .org domain name holders. 

	The second bad outcome is a .org registry sale approved by ICANN without 
multistakeholder engagement in dialogue prior to the approval. This is
likely to be taken as a litmus test of the extent to which ICANN is not a
functioning multistakeholder entity.  

	Sam L (NPOC) 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ncsg.is/pipermail/ncsg-discuss/attachments/20200215/50c27ea5/attachment.htm>