[CPWG] PIR/Ethos

Tue Jan 21 00:24:06 UTC 2020

We have been talking about this for quite awhile. Is there a statement 
under preparation at the moment to come from At Large? I don't see 
anything there.

I am afraid that our non-response might be viewed as a response in 
favour of the sale. That isn't the impression I have -- I don't think 
our community is in favour of the sale.

Marita

On 1/20/2020 3:49 PM, Holly Raiche wrote:
> Alan raises some very good points for discussion.  Could we put his 
> letter on the wiki for PIR please
>
> Holly
>
>> On Jan 21, 2020, at 10:07 AM, sivasubramanian muthusamy 
>> <6.internet at gmail.com <mailto:6.internet at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Alan,
>>
>> (With apologies for commenting on your letter that is directed at the 
>> Board, some comments inline)
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 21, 2020 at 3:01 AM Alan Greenberg 
>> <alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca <mailto:alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca>> wrote:
>>
>>     Perhaps of interest, I sent the following message to the ICANN Board
>>     of Directors today.
>>
>>     Alan
>>
>>     At 20/01/2020 09:44 AM, Alan Greenberg wrote:
>>     >To: ICANN Board
>>     >
>>     >This message is being sent purely on my own behalf. I do not expect
>>     >a personal reply commenting on this issue but I did want to share a
>>     >few thoughts.
>>     >
>>     >With the various assurances that Ethos Capital has made, I was
>>     >starting to feel comfortable that the sale might not come back and
>>     >bite us. However, with the recent revelations of the complexity of
>>     >the corporate structure and the multiple partners (and loans)
>>     >involved, the odor has started to rise again.
>>     >
>>     >When I look at the transaction (and I am ignoring here any public
>>     >relations aspect in relation to ISOC, PIR or even ICANN), I see a
>>     >number of possible very unfortunate consequences.
>>     >
>>     >1. Price increases: Perhaps inevitable after the decision to remove
>>     >pricing limitations, I have found that the statements made by Ethos
>>     >are less than direct. I have heard multiple times that 10%
>>     increases
>>     >could (in the extreme) result in the wholesale price doubling in 10
>>     >years. That is not accurate. The 10% would in fact be compounded
>>     and
>>     >this could result in a 2x in 8 years, 3 x in 13 years and 4x in 16
>>     >years and 6x in 20 years. Perhaps such an increase would harm sales
>>     >sufficiently to cause caution on Ethos' part but I am disturbed
>>     that
>>     >the actual numbers are not being mentioned. But as I said, it is
>>     too
>>     >late to change this, regardless of owner.
>>     >
>>     >2. The largest potential harm I see is to the perceived nature of
>>     >the TLD. There is no restriction on who can register a domain under
>>     >.org, but when you look at the .org domains that show up in real
>>     >life (my own contact list, web searches, etc.), almost all of them
>>     >are not-for-profit type-organizations or individuals. Rarely do you
>>     >see an out-and-out business using a .org domain. It is the reason I
>>     >registered alangreenberg.org <http://alangreenberg.org/> and
>>     used .org for the domain name of my
>>     >local genealogical society. And it is why you find .org used for
>>     >ISOC (and that predates PIR), ICANN, Wikipedia and the Internet
>>     Archive.
>>     >
>>     >That is, in my mind, a core strong strength of .org, and one that
>>     >has been well supported by PIR under ISOC control. However, the
>>     lure
>>     >of profit may make it extremely attractive to try to transform .org
>>     >into another .com. With just 7% of domains under .org compared to
>>     >.com, the name space is wide open with far fewer name conflicts. 
>>
>>     >If it is marketed as a more generic TLD (as opposed to the very
>>     >targeted marketing for .org to date), it could grow - a lot! 
>>
>>
>> It might be counter productive to scale .ORG into a more generic TLD, 
>> but then .ORG might become like any other generic TLD. There may be 
>> greater value in actually "preserving the nature of .ORG" limiting 
>> the number of .ORG registrations to authentic organizations 
>> (individuals engaged in ORG like pursuits)
>>
>> If newPIR pursues this path of retaining and perhaps streamlining 
>> .ORG's unique position, it would be fair to let go of the concerns 
>> about price increases, in compensation for the revenue foregone by 
>> NOT adopting the path of making .ORG into a more generic TLD.  This 
>> is just a thought, shared in context.
>>
>>     And
>>     >along the way very quickly loose its current perceived nature. The
>>     >lure of capturing just a small fraction of the .com market, with
>>     its
>>     >annual gross revenue of over $1.1B will be very difficult to ignore.
>>     >
>>     >Ethos has stated that it will preserve the "nature of .org". Those
>>     >assurances are perhaps comforting but non-binding. 
>>
>>     However, far more
>>     >important is the new information that Ethos may not be calling the
>>     >shots and those other entities who may have control have made no
>>     >such assurances at all.
>>
>>
>> Not sure if Ethos would have designed the pattern of ownership in a 
>> manner that would so easily concede control.
>>
>>     >
>>     >I will not comment on whether ICANN should approve the sale or not.
>>     >The Board has far better insight and advice than I can provide. But
>>     >if the sale does go through I believe it is essential that it
>>     >include binding, non-cancellable requirements that the "nature" of
>>     >the TLD be maintained and efforts not be made to transform it
>>     into a
>>     >true generic, commercially-oriented domain. It will sure be
>>     >difficult to word that in a way as to "guarantee" that it be
>>     >honored, but I feel confident that it can be done such that, if the
>>     >intent is violated, the TLD operator could face the potential for
>>     >having their contract revoked.
>>
>>
>> That would be fair for ICANN to stipulate.
>>
>>     >
>>     >Alan Greenberg
>>
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