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The Controversial Sale of the .ORG Registry: The Conversation We Should Be Having 

February 11, 2020
NT-01 | 12:00pm-2:00pm
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Sponsors

  • American University Washington College of Law
  • Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property
  • Internet Governance Lab
  • WCL Intellectual Property Brief

On November 13, 2019, the Internet Society (ISOC) announced its sale of the Public Interest Registry (PIR) to a private equity firm Ethos Capital for $1.1 billion.  The .ORG registry, run by PIR, supports 10 million .ORG registrants, including many of the world’s largest and smallest human rights and nonprofit groups. Questions abound:  Can a nonprofit (ISOC) sell a nonprofit (PIR)?  Are top-level domains still global public resources?  What can ISOC and PIR do to protect the online communication of millions of .ORG registrants?  What mechanisms could exist to address concerns of the .ORG community? The answers could profoundly affect Internet speech for decades to come.

Fireside chat with Confirmed Speakers

Andrew Sullivan
President & CEO, Internet Society

Mitch Stoltz
Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Benjamin Leff
Professor of Law, Charitable and Non-Profit Organizations
Washington College of Law

Marc Rotenberg
President, Electronic Privacy Information Center,
Former Chair, Public Internet Registry (.ORG)

Kathryn Kleiman - Facilitator
IP & Tech Clinic, Washington College of Law
Former Dir. of Policy, Public Interest Registry (.ORG)