The private equity firm says it’s agreeable to putting price caps into concrete agreements. NTEN, a group that represents non-profits, held a conference call today with a number of participants impacted by the Internet Society’s transaction to sell .org to Ethos Capital. Ethos Capital founder Erik Brooks said that it is evaluating ways to put […]
Company tries to get PureTalk(.)com through ACPA. Pure Talk lost a UDRP, so it filed a lawsuit to try to upgrade its domain from PureTalkUSA.com to PureTalk.com. Pure Talk, a mobile virtual network operator, has filed a lawsuit (pdf) to try to obtain the domain name PureTalk(.)com. The company uses the domain name PureTalkUSA.com. This […]
A secretive deal was the only way ISOC could get a deal done. I’ve written a lot about how Internet Society’s (ISOC) deal to sell the .org registry to a private equity company impacts the internet’s users and non-profits. From a credibility standpoint, it’s a bad deal for ISOC. But from a financial standpoint, it […]
Domain regulator is unlikely to do anything about the sale of .org by a non-profit to a private equity firm. Anyone holding out hope that ICANN will block the sale of .Org to private equity company Ethos should prepare to be disappointed. The company issued a statement to Financial Times saying that it “does not […]
Attorney tried to intimidate domain name owner to settle dispute. Decoweb Brands, S.A. of Spain has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name MaisonDecor.com. It certainly seems like Decoweb’s counsel tried to bully the domain owner into handing the domain over. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization […]
Internet Society reveals the price it is selling out for. On a webinar today, Internet Society has purportedly disclosed that Ethos Capital will pay $1.35 billion to acquire the .org registry from it: #Internetsociety offered 1b and 135mil$USD for #.ORG from Ethos Capital, disclosed only now at a special webinar — Desiree (@Des) November 29, […]
Qatar’s Tourism Council launched a fight over a domain name, and now it needs to defend itself in U.S. Court. A man from Azerbaijan is suing the Qatar National Tourism Council—in Colorado. Teymur Mehdiyev filed a lawsuit (pdf) in U.S. District Court, District of Colorado, after the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ordered that his […]
Netherlands chapter calls on others to join it in denouncing sale. Shortly after Internet Society (ISOC) announced a deal to sell Public Interest Registry (which runs .org) to a private equity company, ISOC sent a notice to its local chapters telling them not to talk to the press about the sale: …You can address any […]
There is no competition for domain renewals. Internet Society CEO Andrew Sullivan has responded to some of the uproar about his non-profit selling Public Interest Registry to a for-profit private equity company. In his response, he repeats the ICANN-given line about how registries can’t drastically increase their prices because of competition and temporary restrictions: There […]
Registrar files rebuttal, moving toward Independent Review Process. Namecheap has filed a rebuttal to ICANN’s board decision on its reconsideration request over the new .org contract. It is also filing for Independent Review, starting with the voluntary Cooperative Engagement Process (CEP). The registrar is challenging ICANN’s staff deciding to remove price caps from .org domain […]
