NGOs use Davos World Economic Forum Stage to Protest Sale of .org Domain Registry

[James Gannon]

Just some observations, the sale price is actually pretty much in line with the market for EBIT multipliers in the tech sale market.

Also its Ethos that is carrying the debt not PIR and is entirely normal for a PE firm, I would be much more concerned if they were not financing at least part of the deal. There is a huge amount of FUD being thrown around by so many folks who have such little exposure to the PE/VC market (I will note that Im not including you in that Sam just using this post as a springboard) and who are merely being taken for a ride by much of the biased coverage of the deal. Its entirely undermined most if not any chance the NFP sector had of putting some good controls and security around the change in control of .org, I wish that many of the organisations who are protesting this had done an ounce of research on the deal rather than jumping into activism on a sector that they clearly have not engaged in for a long time, but suddenly now there is a clear item that they can use as a cornerstone and send out lots of nice fundraising emails about.

Highly disappointing IMO.

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James Gannon

From: NCSG-Discuss <NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU> on behalf of Sam Lanfranco <lanfran at YORKU.CA>
Reply to: Sam Lanfranco <lanfran at YORKU.CA>
Date: Friday, 24 January 2020 at 20:14
To: "NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" <NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
Subject: Re: NGOs use Davos World Economic Forum Stage to Protest Sale of .org Domain Registry

Bruna,

I share part of your worry but it is important that we recognize that we do live in an information sharing world, one where both true and false information can go viral with little warning and even less control. We have to take every opportunity, in the flow, to enhance the understanding of the stakeholder community, and the second/third/etc degree of separation communities. We have to take this as an opportunity to be a learning moment. Here is what I wrote as a Comment in response to the Devex posting from Davos:

There are many reasons to be concerned here, no matter who is the buyer of the Public Interest Registry (PIR) that holds the .org registry contract with ICANN. One that has been underestimated is that the current proposed price of $1.13B USD is practically a multiple of the market valuation that would be assigned to PIR’s holding the .org registry contract if based on current revenues. That means that serious domain name annual fee increases will be “baked in” into the sale at this price. It also means that a the .org registry, previously held by a debt free non-profit entity (PIR), will carry seriously indebtedness where substantial domain name revenues will be needed to service that debit and not be available to support beneficial public interest uses. While the Internet Society (ISOC) has every right to sell PIR and control over the .org registry, it does not have the right to engage in a sale that encumbers the .org registry with a seriously burdensome debt and costs to the .org domain name holders.

The sale requires ICANN Board approval, be the sale to Ethos Capital or anyone else. A wise Board decision would be to return to an open and competitive sale. ICANN has both the right and the obligation to insist on an ownership structure, and .org registry contract wording that protect the integrity of the .org registry, the public interest, and .org stakeholder interests. The choice to do the right thing, and do it right, in the hands of the ICANN Board of Directors.

Lastly, and this is sad, some comments from within the NCSG community are becoming increasingly uncivil and are beginning to look more like responses based on old wounds from long ago fights. There are enough substantive reasons to be concerned with the sale as it is now constructed. It is only proper to ask the Board to show the leadership that its position (constituted as the Board) is supposed to show, and do the right thing right. Likewise, none of us in NCSG should have a "private horse" in this competition and we should be both asking the Board to rise to the occasion, and we can help by suggesting the right high integrity things that the Board should consider.

Sam L (NPOC/CNSG)

---- Original Message ----
From: Bruna Martins dos Santos <bruna.mrtns at GMAIL.COM>
To: NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Sent: Fri, Jan 24, 2020, 2:37 PM
Subject: Re: NGOs use Davos World Economic Forum Stage to Protest Sale of .org Domain Registry
I honestly just hope we do not end up regretting the amount of attention from Legislators and Government officials that this campaign is bringing to ICANN.

Bringing our subjects to the communities outside of ICANN is definitely important if and when we manage to properly explain the issues and things that are being advocated for within this community, but the way this is being done might truly be harmful to our model. (Hope I am wrong on this one)

best,
B

Le ven. 24 janv. 2020 à 17:33, Caleb Olumuyiwa Ogundele <muyiwacaleb at gmail.com<mailto:muyiwacaleb at gmail.com>> a écrit :
This is another blow and absolutely a bad global press focus on ISOC.
Perhaps, a time for them to step back and reflect.

On Fri, Jan 24, 2020 at 8:28 PM Sam Lanfranco <lanfran at yorku.ca<mailto:lanfran at yorku.ca>> wrote:
Colleagues,

https://www.devex.com/news/ngos-use-davos-stage-to-protest-sale-of-org-domain-96410
NGOs use Davos stage to protest sale of .org domain
By Adva Saldinger<https://www.devex.com/news/authors/815508> // 23 January 2020


DAVOS, Switzerland — Plans to sell the .org domain to a private equity firm have international NGOs worried that civil society, which is already faced with a closing civic space, will lose its digital commons.

The executive directors of 11 international NGOs released an open letter Wednesday calling on the leaders of two nonprofits — the Internet Society and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — to stop the sale of the .org domain.

For the rest of the Davos World Economic Forum coverage see:  https://www.devex.com/news/ngos-use-davos-stage-to-protest-sale-of-org-domain-96410



--
Ogundele Olumuyiwa Caleb
muyiwacaleb at gmail.com<mailto:muyiwacaleb at gmail.com>
234 - 8077377378
234 - 07030777969


--
Bruna Martins dos Santos

Skype ID: bruna.martinsantos
@boomartins
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