Worries over sale of dot-org registry

The company that controls the dot-org online universe is putting the registry of domain names up for sale, and non-profits that often use the suffix in their websites are raising concerns about the move.

People protested yesterday outside the Los Angeles headquarters of the regulatory body for domain names, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

ICANN is meeting this weekend, and is expected to rule by mid-February on plans by private equity firm Ethos Capital to buy the Public Interest Registry for US$1.1 billion (NZ$1.6b).

More than 700 organisations, including Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, the YMCA and YWCA and the Girl Scouts of America, opposed the sale, the protesters said.

Opponents are concerned that the cost of registering a dot-org website will skyrocket, and about the potential loss of freedoms of speech and expression if the registry ends up in the wrong hands.

Ethos Capital and the Internet Society, which runs the registry now, say those concerns are misplaced and the sale is being misunderstood. They say prices will remain low, the registry’s managers will stay in place, and the infusion of capital will ensure the longterm growth of dot-org. They have also rejected assertions that online content could be spied on and censored.

Speculators have registered a variety of names under popular domain suffixes such as dot-com and dot-org, and an easy-toremember name can fetch millions of dollars in the resale market. Owners of popular suffixes can collect hundreds of millions of dollars a year in registration fees.

The dot-org suffix was created in the mid1980s. Since 2003, it has been managed by the Public Interest Registry at the Internet Society, a non-profit founded by many of the internet’s early engineers and scientists.

The registry collects annual fees of about US$10 from each of the more than 10 million dot-org names registered worldwide. The society uses some of that money to finance its advocacy and administrative programmes, which include creating technical standards for the internet.

It says proceeds from the sale will fund an endowment to provide more diversified and sustainable resources in the long term.

Critics fear that a new owner could change policies and reduce protections for domain name owners, including non-governmental organisations that operate in authoritarian countries.