ICANN67, which, as previously reported, is taking place exclusively in an online format for the first time ever, opened with public discussions on transferring PIR to the private company Ethos Capital. The registry manages the gTLD .ORG and was previously controlled by the Internet Society (ISOC). But at the end of last year, ISOC decided to sell the registry to Ethos Capital for $1.13 billion. This means that PIR will change its status from a non-profit organization to a commercial company. And, as many think, this will cause price hikes and become a serious problem for charitable and non-profit organizations, which for many years have been considering .ORG as their "home" in the global network.
The public forum was opened by ICANN Directors' Board Chair Maarten Botterman and ICANN’s general counsel John Jeffrey. They emphasized that ICANN cannot deal with domain pricing issues and does not have the authority to prohibit ISOC from selling the registry and Ethos Capital from acquiring it. At the same time, PIR is bound by contractual obligations with ICANN, and the corporation may block the transaction if it considers that the sale of the registry will harm the internet community in general and domain registrants in the .ORG zone in particular.
Community representatives who spoke at the forum focused on the most important aspects of the situation. In particular, they approved the initiative of Ethos Capital, which volunteered to include in the contract with ICANN a clause on limiting price increases (previously removed from it when renewing the contract). At the same time, they noticed that another initiative of Ethos Capital – the creation of the Stewardship Council, which would solve all the important issues related to the fate of .ORG – still looks underdeveloped. The Council, in the form proposed by Ethos Capital, does not look like a real regulatory body with sufficient authority, some speakers believed. It was also noted that a clearer determination of the status of the .ORG domain zone would contribute to resolving the problem. The domain is traditionally considered to be designed for non-profit organizations, charity funds and activists, but to date there are no official documents that would uniquely consolidate this status.
Hopefully, this public forum will help ICANN make the right decision on the .ORG fate. There is no such decision so far: Botterman said that when speaking at the Governmental Advisory Committee meeting on the same day. Answering whether ICANN is going to block the PIR transfer transaction, he said: “At this moment all options remain open. ICANN will consider the request based upon the totality of the information received.”
