Coalition Letter to the Internet Society

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Internet SocietyAttn: Andrew Sullivan, President and CEO11710 Plaza America Drive, Suite 400Reston, VA 20190

Dear Mr. Sullivan,

We urge you to stop the sale of the Public Interest Registry (PIR) to Ethos Capital.

Non-governmental organizations all over the world rely on the .ORG top-level domain.Decisions a�ecting .ORG must be made with the consultation of the NGO community,overseen by a trusted community leader. If the Internet Society (ISOC) can no longer bethat leader, it should work with the NGO community and the Internet Corporation forAssigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to find an appropriate replacement.

The 2019 .ORG Registry Agreement represents a significant departure from .ORG’s 34-yearhistory. It gives the registry the power to make several policy decisions that would bedetrimental to the .ORG community:

The power to raise .ORG registration fees without the approval of ICANN or the.ORG community. A .ORG price hike would put many cash-strapped NGOs in thedi�cult position of either paying the increased fees or losing the legitimacy andbrand recognition of a .ORG domain.The power to develop and implement Rights Protection Mechanisms unilaterally,without consulting the .ORG community. If such mechanisms are not carefullycrafted in collaboration with the NGO community, they risk censoring completelylegal nonprofit activities.The power to implement processes to suspend domain names based onaccusations of “activity contrary to applicable law.” The .ORG registry should notimplement such processes without understanding how state actors frequently targetNGOs with allegations of illegal activity.

A registry could abuse these powers to do significant harm to the global NGO sector,intentionally or not. We cannot a�ord to put them into the hands of a private equity firmthat has not earned the trust of the NGO community. .ORG must be managed by a leaderthat puts the needs of NGOs over profits.

When ISOC originally proposed transferring management of .ORG to PIR in 2002, ISOC’sthen President and CEO Lynn St. Amour promised that .ORG would continue to be driven bythe NGO community—in her words, PIR would “draw upon the resources of ISOC’sextended global network to drive policy and management.” As long-time members of thatglobal network, we insist that you keep that promise.

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