ICANN Nixes Sale of .Org Registry
ICANN rejected the Internet Society's proposed sale of Public Interest Registry to Ethos Capital after "completing extensive due diligence," Chairman Maarten Botterman blogged Thursday night. Directors found withholding consent to the transfer "is reasonable, and the right thing to do." The deal had attracted scrutiny from legislators and from at least one attorney general, while nonprofit advocates opposed it. The decision "sets a dangerous precedent with broad industry implications," said Ethos.
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The board "was presented with a unique and complex situation" affecting one of the largest registries with more than 10.5 million domain names registered, Botterman said. The review found that "the public interest is better served in withholding consent as a result of various factors that create unacceptable uncertainty over the future of the third largest gTLD (generic Top Level Domain) registry." The entire board stands by the decision, Botterman wrote.
The decision "is a hard-fought victory for nonprofit Internet users," said the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "We’re glad ICANN listened to the many voices in the nonprofit world urging it not to support the sale."
The registry called it a "disappointing decision" that's "a failure to follow [ICANN's] bylaws, processes, and contracts." The Internet Society said it's "disappointed that ICANN has acted as a regulatory body it was never meant to be." Parties to the deal reacted in a joint post with comments from each of them that a spokesperson provided us when asked for comment.