[NCUC-DISCUSS] Reuters reports new cooperative formed to take over management of .ORG

[Mueller, Milton L]

Oh, this is such hypocrisy. So Andrew McLaughlin, Mike Roberts and Esther Dyson (who totally dissed the noncommercial constituency when they held positions of power in ICANN are now coming to the rescue of the noncommercial community by altruistically offering to take over an asset worth $1 billion.

Those people are _not_ our friends.

This is an example of why we need to be careful how we react to this proposed sale. This is just turning into a land grab, by which certain interests (e.g. Wikimedia Foundation) are seeking to exploit the controversy to take over ORG for themselves.

Dr. Milton L Mueller
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Public Policy
[IGP_logo_gold block]



From: Ncuc-discuss <ncuc-discuss-bounces at lists.ncuc.org> On Behalf Of Wisdom Donkor
Sent: Wednesday, January 8, 2020 5:28 AM
To: NCUC-discuss <ncuc-discuss at lists.ncuc.org>
Subject: [NCUC-DISCUSS] Reuters reports new cooperative formed to take over management of .ORG

In this 7 January 2020 article<https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/07/reuters-america-internet-nonprofit-leaders-fight-deal-to-sell-control-of-org-domain.html?__source=sharebar%7Ctwitter&par=sharebar> we learn that, "prominent internet executives told Reuters they have created a nonprofit cooperative they are offering as an alternative owner of .org."

This would appear to me to pose an existential threat to ISOC, as this nonprofit cooperative - whose membership appears to me to have more political muscle than ISOC has - is not proposing to buy PIR from ISOC, but to instead have the .ORG Registry Agreement assigned to it by ICANN.

The full article is here, and I have extracted some relevant quotes below: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/07/reuters-america-internet-nonprofit-leaders-fight-deal-to-sell-control-of-org-domain.html?__source=sharebar|twitter&par=sharebar<https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/07/reuters-america-internet-nonprofit-leaders-fight-deal-to-sell-control-of-org-domain.html?__source=sharebar%7Ctwitter&par=sharebar>

“What offended me about the Ethos Capital deal and the way it unfolded is that it seems to have completely betrayed this concept of stewardship,” said Andrew McLaughlin, who oversaw the transfer of internet governance from the U.S. Commerce Department to ICANN, completed in 2016.

Maher and others said the idea of the new cooperative is not to offer a competing financial bid for .org, which brings in roughly $100 million in revenue from domain sales. Instead, they hope that the unusual new entity, formally a California Consumer Cooperative Corporation, can manage the domain for security and stability and make sure it does not become a tool for censorship.

... The initial seven directors of the cooperative include former founding ICANN President Michael Roberts, MacArthur Foundation philanthropist Jeff Ubois and Bill Woodcock, whose Packet Clearing House now runs the technical aspects of the .org system under contract.

The new group has briefed members of the U.S. Congress and hopes to prompt the Internet Society to reconsider the sale. But its best shot at stopping the pending sale lies with ICANN, which can veto any change in ownership out of concern for the security, reliability or stability of the .org domain.

Best wishes,

WISDOM DONKOR
President & CEO
Africa Open Data and Internet Research Foundation
P.O. Box CT 2439, Cantonments, Accra | www.aodirf.org<http://www.aodirf.org>  / www.afrigeocon.org<http://www.afrigeocon.org>
Tel: +233 20 812 8851
Skype: wisdom_dk | Facebook: kwasi wisdom |  Twitter: @wisdom_dk
__________________________________________________
Specialization:
E-government Network Infrastructure and E-application, Internet Governance,  Open Data policies platforms & Community Development, Cyber Security,  Domain Name Systems, Software Engineering, Event Planning & Management,
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