[CPWG] Fwd: Re: Reuters reports new cooperative formed to take over management of .ORG

[Marita Moll]

More information on the Ethos PIR takeover revealed in response to ICANN 
questions.

Marita

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	Re: Reuters reports new cooperative formed to take over 
management of .ORG
Date: 	Sun, 12 Jan 2020 16:56:05 +0000
From: 	Wisdom Donkor <wisdom.dk at GMAIL.COM>
Reply-To: 	Wisdom Donkor <wisdom.dk at GMAIL.COM>
To: 	NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU



DomainIncite has provided a summary of these documents:

http://domainincite.com/25176-25176

"here are the headlines:

* The deal is being partly funded by an enormous loan.
* Technically, Ethos isn’t the direct buyer. There are at least three 
corporate entities involved in the acquisition that we haven’t heard of 
before.
* Ethos won’t reveal the names of the directors of PIR’s would-be owner.
* Another former senior ICANN staffer and long-time Fadi Chehadé 
collaborator has been revealed as having an interest in the acquisition."

Cheers,

*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,


On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 10:28 AM Wisdom Donkor <wisdom.dk at gmail.com 
<mailto:wisdom.dk at gmail.com>> wrote:

    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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