The epic with transferring PIR, running the .ORG domain, into the hands of Ethos Capital was replenished with another “chapter”. Ethos representatives came up with initiatives that are designed to calm down the wave of resentment raised by this deal. The main reason that the public are worried is that shortly before the sale of PIR, ICANN renegotiated a contract with the registry on new terms. And according to this contract, all restrictions on price increases in .ORG have been removed. It is logical that when buying a registry for more than a billion US dollars, Ethos Capital wants to compensate its costs and will put the prices up. This can be a serious blow for many activists and public organizations that traditionally use domains in the .ORG zone for their sites.
Ethos Capital has announced that it volunteers to include the previously removed clause on price restrictions in the contract. It corresponds exactly to the previous rules: for 8 out of 10 years of the validity of the agreement, prices cannot increase by more than 10 percent. This means that if today the wholesale price of a domain name in .ORG is $9.93 for registrars, then next year it cannot exceed $10.92, according to Domain Incite. The company, however, is free not to raise the price at all for five years and in the sixth year to raise it immediately to $16.53, without violating its obligations. And in any case, the restriction, as already mentioned, applies to 8 out of 10 years of the contract, so in the remaining two years, prices can rise as they like. Any price increase causes negative response, but the current step by Ethos Capital, at least, introduces certain rules of the game and removes suspicions of collusion with ICANN, as a result of which the clause on price increase restrictions disappeared from the contract shortly before the registry was sold. In addition, Ethos Capital also tried to dispel the anxiety of those who believe that transferring the registry to private hands could lead to censorship, which is also extremely painful for activists and public organizations. Ethos proposes the creation of an .ORG Stewardship Council, which will include experts, human rights activists and representatives of public organizations. This Council will advise the registry on issues related to censorship and the use of registrants' personal data.
It is hard to say how Ethos Capital’s initiatives will be received by an angry public. But we can say with confidence that the company is clearly concerned about the fate of the deal. And if earlier it seemed that the approval of the sale of PIR by ICANN was nothing more than a formality, now everything is far from so obvious. Under the pressure of public indignation, the California attorney general’s office has already become interested in selling PIR, and ICANN’s board of directors has requested a more detailed review of the deal. And Ethos Capital has to come up with some compromises.
