20200323 Der Top Level Domain ORG droht der Verkauf

23.03.2020 Der Top Level Domain ORG droht der Verkauf

savedotorg.org

In the USA, we are about to see the sale of Public Interest Registry (PIR) – the operator of the .org domain – to Ethos Capital. Ethos Capital is a private equity firm backed by conservative investors.

What does a top level domain operator do?

The tasks are rather simple. A top-level domain operator manages the name servers for the domain and can charge for the registration of domains. But they can also change the conditions for registration, adapting it according to their own political views. This is especially important for the top-level domain .org, as NGOs all over the world rely on the domain.

In a letter, the US Democrats criticised the 1.13 billion-dollar deal for its lack of transparency. Heise writes that more than 800 organizations and 25,000 individuals got involved via campaigns such as savedotorg.org and called on the ISOC, the network self-government ICANN and US policy to stop the sale, and its transformation into a for-profit.

In mid-March, Elisabeth Warren and fellow Democrats Ron Wyden, Richard Blumenthal, Anna Eshoo and Edward Markey wrote a second letter to raise their objections to the sale. They doubt that the new owner could make a profit without raising prices immensely.

After this second letter, the international organisation ICANN must now think again about a possible rejection of the deal.