The Internet Society (ISOC) will no longer consider offers on the sale of the Public Interest Registry (PIR), an NGO which manages the gTLD .ORG, according to ISOC chair Andrew Sullivan. The statement was made after ICANN decided to block the deal to sell PIR on April 30 to the private company Ethos Capital.
Commenting on this step, ICANN Chair of the Board of Directors Maarten Botterman noted that this difficult decision was supported by all members of the corporation's board of directors. Among the main reasons behind the decision, Botterman named the change of the registry’s status from a non-profit organization designed to serve the interests of the entire community of .ORG domain zone registrants to a commercial company that is obliged to take into account above all the financial interests of its shareholders. He also noted that the $360 million loans received by Ethos Capital for the purchase of PIR are highly likely to influence the registry’s financial policy and may create difficulties for registrants.
At the same time, ICANN noted that its decision does not mean a complete ban on selling PIR, and Ethos Capital has already said that it will leave the door open. But Andrew Sullivan, apparently, put an end to the transaction. The ISOC head expressed disappointment with the ICANN decision. “It should concern the internet community that ICANN has shown itself to be much more susceptible to political pressure than its limited mandate would recommend,” Andrew Sullivan said as quoted by Domain Incite. “Now that we know that ICANN believes its remit to be much larger than we believe it is, we can state this clearly: neither PIR nor any of its operations are for sale now, and the Internet Society will resist vigorously any suggestion that they ought to be.”
