ICANN Delays .Org Sale Approval, Calls For More Transparency (icann.org)
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"ICANN has delayed its approval of the sale of .Org to private equity company Ethos Capital by requesting more information," reports Domain Name Wire:
According to its contract with Public Interest Registry (PIR) to run .org, ICANN had 30 days from when PIR notified it of the transaction to request more information. It has now done so. After it receives the responses, it has 30 days to either approve or withhold its consent of the registry transfer.
The Register recently published two articles criticizing ICANN's "opaque decision-making," while the General Counsel for ICANN has sent a letter to the CEOs of both PIR and ISOC saying they're also "uncomfortable" with the lack of transparency.
ICANN is requesting information "related to the continuity of the operations of the .ORG registry, the nature of the proposed transaction, how the proposed new ownership structure would continue to adhere to the terms of our current agreement with Public Internet Registry, and how they intend to act consistently with their promises to serve the .ORG community with more than 10 million domain name registrations...
"We acknowledge the questions and concerns that are being raised and directed to ISOC, PIR, and ICANN relating to this change. To ease those concerns and maintain trust in the .ORG community, we urge PIR, ISOC, and Ethos Capital to act in an open and transparent manner throughout this process...
"ICANN takes its responsibility in evaluating this proposed transaction very seriously. We will thoughtfully and thoroughly evaluate the proposed acquisition to ensure that the .ORG registry remains secure, reliable, and stable."
The Register recently published two articles criticizing ICANN's "opaque decision-making," while the General Counsel for ICANN has sent a letter to the CEOs of both PIR and ISOC saying they're also "uncomfortable" with the lack of transparency.
ICANN is requesting information "related to the continuity of the operations of the .ORG registry, the nature of the proposed transaction, how the proposed new ownership structure would continue to adhere to the terms of our current agreement with Public Internet Registry, and how they intend to act consistently with their promises to serve the .ORG community with more than 10 million domain name registrations...
"We acknowledge the questions and concerns that are being raised and directed to ISOC, PIR, and ICANN relating to this change. To ease those concerns and maintain trust in the .ORG community, we urge PIR, ISOC, and Ethos Capital to act in an open and transparent manner throughout this process...
"ICANN takes its responsibility in evaluating this proposed transaction very seriously. We will thoughtfully and thoroughly evaluate the proposed acquisition to ensure that the .ORG registry remains secure, reliable, and stable."
In other words (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:In other words (Score:5, Insightful)
Yup, and the weasel words are already there:
"We will thoughtfully and thoroughly evaluate the proposed acquisition to ensure that the .ORG registry remains secure, reliable, and stable."
Notice how the word "affordable" or similar is missing from that list?
Re: (Score:1)
Essentially it means they need to split some of the cash with ICANN.
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it cost me $200 USD to register a .sucks .... I can't wait to see how many thousands it'll cost to keep .org
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My thoughts exactly.
How about the one thing that really matters (Score:2)
"ICANN takes its responsibility in evaluating this proposed transaction very seriously. We will thoughtfully and thoroughly evaluate the proposed acquisition to ensure that the .ORG registry remains secure, reliable, and stable."
"...remains secure, reliable, and stable."? What about price?? Let's face it, that's what everyone's really concerned about.
Re:How about the one thing that really matters (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:How about the one thing that really matters (Score:4)
Please permit me to express my dismay. Will this be run as thoughtfully and effectively as when ICANN decided to create over 1500 top level domains, with the list primarily designed to encourage cybersquatting in alternative domains and reap registration fees? The list is at http://data.iana.org/TLD/tlds-... [iana.org]
Or will it be as sensible as when they permitted top-level registrars, such as Verisign, to insert wildcard entries for top level domains such as '*.com' and route all mis-spelled or expired domain names in URL's or email to Verisign's central web sites and SMTP servers, ripe for harvesting?
Re: How about the one thing that really matters (Score:1)
What about privacy?
What if something like gay rights, democracy and free association are punishable by death in the local jurisdiction? What if said org is anti communist? Or pro free speech, values that are not California friendly, and certainly not friendly to this Soros backed entity
Please sign Save .ORG petition (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Thanks Obama. (Score:4, Insightful)
And, hopefully... (Score:2)
And, hopefully, still affordable.
I'm worried about prices (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm afraid I haven't followed this topic as closely as I should, but my worry is that .org registrations will skyrocket in price. Whoever owns the TLD .org has an automatic, captive consumer base. Apparently, there are over 10 million .org domains registered, and that number is from 2013. When I hear the phrase "private equity firm", my first thought is not that they're going to be concerned about keeping revenues to a minimum. If I were an unscrupulous businessman about to take control of .org, my first thought might be "why don't we increase the price of registration by 10x and make a pathetic excuse about needing to make enough money to keep the lights on?"
I personally have 3 .org domains, and they're all for small, non-profit (read: completely without income) sites that I run for hobby organizations that I participate with. Right now, I'm paying $10 per year for .orgs (and, since I just checked, about $8 for my .coms). I don't mind donating $10/year and some labor to these groups, but if it goes way up, I'm going to need to pass a hat around.
Remember.. (Score:5, Insightful)
At 10 million .orgs, and $10 year, and their reported purchase price, its around a 20% ROI, pretty damn good for them, and makes the sale look like a bad joke.
And thats at $10... which of course will not last.
So, the questions is, who would sell such a money making machine? Well, someone who is getting a nice fat amount of cash for selling out, thats who.....
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You're exactly right. Also, I just did a search on lowest price .org domains, and I found an aggregator that I won't cite because I don't want to give them traffic (if you want, Google "cheapest .org registration"). On that site, the average renewal price for a .org is $14.23. They don't list Cloudflare, which seems to be the most inexpensive registrar.
So the profit is even more than you estimate, which of course just reinforces your conclusion. There is money to be made here, and if played right, it's a t
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Prices won't skyrocket, they will creep upward year after year.
You are a frog, and you are already being boiled.
com and org were $6/yr at the registry 15 years ago. Then ICANN started it's corporate giveaways and let verisign raise .com to the current $7.85... it would be higher but congress intervened. .org had no intervention and is up to $9.93 today. Berkshire Hathaway owns a significant chunk of Verisign and is rumored to be pulling the strings on this .org mess so they can ultimately remove price con
Cost to run a TLD (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
PIR doesn't actually run the registry, they farm it out to Afilias. They just got that expense chopped a few months ago: https://domainnamewire.com/201... [domainnamewire.com]