INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
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The Girl Scouts of America has joined protests over the sale of the .org
domain
The Girl Scouts of America and the YMCA have joined protests about the future of the ".org" domain.They are among
thousands of organisations and individuals concerned about the sale of the Public Internet Registry (PIR), which runs .org.PIR was sold last
week for an undisclosed sum to private equity firm Ethos Capital.The scale of the protests have led the internet's overseer to look into the
terms of the deal.'Significant harm'The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) said it was "in the process of analysing
the specifics" of the sale
PIR was created by the Internet Society, in 2002, to take over the running of the .org domain on behalf of non-profits, charities and other
non-governmental organisations.About 10 million .org domains are believed to have been registered
And the Internet Society has been sent almost 7,000 letters asking it to halt the sale of PIR to Ethos, as part of a campaign co-ordinated
by the SaveDotOrg website.The letters set out fears of "significant harm to the global NGO sector" due to:increases in the price of
domainscensorshiparbitrary decisions to shut down websitesAmong the organisations to have sent them are the Electronic Frontier Foundation,
the Internet Archive, the National Council of Non-Profits, the Wikimedia Foundation and the American Alliance of Museums, as well as the
Girl Scouts of America and the YMCA.'Shared values'Separately, the Internet Commerce Association and domain register Namecheap have sent
their own letters of complaint.The Internet Society told TheIndianSubcontinent News Ethos Capital was a "strong strategic partner that
understands the intricacies of the domain industry and has the expertise, experience and shared values to further advance the goals of
.org".And it had committed to honouring existing practices on pricing, which would limit annual increases
Ethos Capital said it was "committed to keeping .org accessible and reasonably priced for all".
