Why didn't the '.org' domain sell itself to the management company?

The ' .org ' domain for nonprofits is managed by the Public Interest Registry (PIR) , a registry under the Internet Society (ISOC) . In 2019, there was a sudden uproar that the entire registry was about to be sold to an investment company. The turmoil has subsided in May 2020 when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which maintains the domain database, refused to sell it. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit organization that opposed the sale of PIR and the '.org' domain, looks back on how the turmoil has subsided.

How We Saved .ORG: 2020 in Review | Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/12/how-we-saved-org-2020-review

In July 2019, when ICANN and PIR, which was the registry of the '.org' domain, renewed the contract, it started with the removal of the upper limit of the '.org' domain registration price. Many criticized this decision, as higher registration fees for the '.org' domain would have a significant impact on many nonprofits.

Over 3000 oppositions have been pushed out and the upper limit of the '.org' domain registration price has been decided to be lifted, and there is a possibility of a price increase in the future --GIGAZINE

Then, in November 2019, it turned out that PIR will be sold to the investment company Ethos Capital together with the management right of the '.org' domain. The reason why PIR was sold was explained as 'to stabilize the profits of ISOC, which was the parent of PIR.'

It turns out that the '.org domain' for non-profit organizations and schools has been sold to private companies together with the management organization --GIGAZINE

Opposition signing activity started against this sale plan. Signed by more than 800 nonprofits such as the EFF, Wikimedia Foundation, Creative Commons, and the Internet Archive, and more than 27,000 community volunteers.

Activities to sign against the sale of the management organization of the '.org' domain to an investment company started --GIGAZINE

After scrutinizing ICANN's financial position, Ethos Capital found that it paid $ 1.135 billion to buy a PIR, nearly one-third of which was covered by a loan. I did. It was pointed out that there are suspicious points in this PIR sale transaction because the price of PIR is too low.

It turns out that the sale price of the '.org' domain was over 120 billion yen, experts point out that 'the sale price is too low' --GIGAZINE

In December 2019, ICANN announced that it would suspend the sale transaction for 30 days in response to dissenting opinions and various comments from the community. The California Attorney General, who saw the situation even more seriously, sent an information inquiry warrant to ICANN in January 2020, and due to this procedure, the deadline for sale negotiations was delayed until the end of April 2020.

Judiciary finally moves due to '.org' domain sale problem --GIGAZINE

Then, on April 30, 2020, ICANN 'decided that refusing to agree to sell the PIR from ISOC to Ethos Capital was reasonable and correct.' 'The third largest gTLD. There are various factors that bring unacceptable levels of uncertainty to the future of the registry, and we have decided that we should not agree to the sale in order to protect the public interest, 'he said, revealing that he rejected the sale. I made it . EFF so that does not occur the same thing again, to re-examine the policy on the commitment of the trade to the ICANN request has been.

The EFF said it blocked the sale of the PIR because nonprofits responded loudly and tried to block it every time Ethos Capital and the PIR tried to move forward with any contract. .. He also said that the prosecutor's president and members of the Diet who wrote the open letter to ICANN were very active. Elliott Harmon, senior activist at the EFF, said, 'I've worked in a nonprofit for most of my life since I was an adult, but I unanimously react to anything in a nonprofit. I have never seen it, 'he said, praising the unprecedented level of unanimous efforts by nonprofits and community volunteers to work together to oppose the sale of PIR.