The Attempted Corporate Takeover of .Org • Hacker News Board

Re: The Attempted Corporate Takeover of .Org

#31

Post by philsnow » Wed, Jan 22, 2020, 11:21 PM UTC

dr_dshiv wrote: post #16

oaiey wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UNHCR or another huge entity will not give a shit. They have a legal department which can end Ethos Capital if they like. However, the reading club with 20 members and yearly income of 300€ cannot afford a 100€ .org. .org and the PIR had a dedicated purpose.

But why not just get a .club extension? Shouldn't .orgs be reserved for big orgs?

no, .org is reserved for organizations that aren't dedicated to making money. size isn't relevant.

let me turn the question around: why should Ethos get .org? make them drum up support for some new TLD. This is purely, purely a cash grab, allowed by regulatory capture, and it should be stopped.

Re: The Attempted Corporate Takeover of .Org

#32

Post by jascii » Wed, Jan 22, 2020, 11:31 PM UTC

Sigh, I am flabbergasted at my own lack of outrage. Not to long ago something like this would have me all up in arms, now it seems like just another nail in the coffin of democracy..

Re: The Attempted Corporate Takeover of .Org

#33

Post by dr_dshiv » Wed, Jan 22, 2020, 11:32 PM UTC

philsnow wrote: post #31

dr_dshiv wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why not just get a .club extension? Shouldn't .orgs be reserved for big orgs?

no, .org is reserved for organizations that aren't dedicated to making money. size isn't relevant. let me turn the question around: why should Ethos get .org? make them drum up support for some new TLD. This is purely, purely a cash grab, allowed by regulatory capture, and it should be stopped.

What does "reserved" mean? Anyone can buy a .org. There isn't any actual restriction.

Well, let's say that a mission driven for profit corporation could ensure that .org owners aren't for-profit -- and do a better job than the current committee. Should they be allowed a .org? In my world, I'd say no, since I'd prefer that .orgs are actually restricted to non corporates.

Re: The Attempted Corporate Takeover of .Org

#34

Post by matt_morgan » Wed, Jan 22, 2020, 11:33 PM UTC

riddlemethat wrote: post #6

teruakohatu wrote: post #2

It seems that over time any sufficiently well funded non-profit will eventually hire a financial engineer as CEO and transform into a Hedge Fund with some sort of charitable appendage.

Absolutely true. My buddy managed money for the kind of non-profits everyone has heard of at one time or another. Tends to be that once they get big enough they find themselves recipients of endowments that they can invest however they see fit. They tend to put that capital to work in whatever yields the highest return. Know what offers the best returns? Stuff that tends to cause the problems the non-profit might hav…

I suppose that it's only a pity that after 26 years in nonprofits--eight different .orgs--that I have never experienced this. Beware anecdotal data.

Re: The Attempted Corporate Takeover of .Org

#35

Post by swiley » Wed, Jan 22, 2020, 11:33 PM UTC

iameli wrote: post #4

> Verisign controls the registries for .com and .net, two of the internet’s most popular. All it does is administer a database and collect small sums from website owners, but with computing power rising and practically no marginal cost to adding another website to the database, the entire enterprise is a license to print money. In the third quarter of 2019, Verisign showed operating income of $205.6 million on $308.4…

I have some familiarity with the .com/.net stuff

Yes the registry is incredibly cheap to run, it’s the name servers themselves that are so expensive (from what I understand this is partially due to uptime requirements.)

Re: The Attempted Corporate Takeover of .Org

#36

Post by TazeTSchnitzel » Wed, Jan 22, 2020, 11:37 PM UTC

brandon272 wrote: post #12

Something has gone seriously wrong when one of our original TLDs, which, from my perspective, should be considered sacrosanct elements of the internet with historical importance, are able to be sold off by interloping individuals, who, for some bizarre reason, feel that they are entitled to capitalize on these TLDs, and who do so purely with their own self-interest at heart. I'm really just disappointed and angered t…

Alas the Internet was created in a capitalist world, and capitalism loves rent-seeking.

Re: The Attempted Corporate Takeover of .Org

#37

Post by annoyingnoob » Wed, Jan 22, 2020, 11:41 PM UTC

I updated my .org domains for the max 5 years that my provider would let me. At least I'm locked in for now. The whole thing seems shady though I really want to believe that the new owner will play nice. As humans we can decide that altruism > greed, something tells me that greed will rule here.

Re: The Attempted Corporate Takeover of .Org

#38

Post by TazeTSchnitzel » Wed, Jan 22, 2020, 11:43 PM UTC

teruakohatu wrote: post #2

It seems that over time any sufficiently well funded non-profit will eventually hire a financial engineer as CEO and transform into a Hedge Fund with some sort of charitable appendage.

America's well-endowed universities seem like a perfect example of human greed. They have amassed so much money that they could seriously invest in furthering their ostensible mission — education — yet they'd rather just obsess over making sure the big pile of money only grows bigger.

Re: The Attempted Corporate Takeover of .Org

#39

Post by kortilla » Wed, Jan 22, 2020, 11:44 PM UTC

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #36

brandon272 wrote: post #12

Something has gone seriously wrong when one of our original TLDs, which, from my perspective, should be considered sacrosanct elements of the internet with historical importance, are able to be sold off by interloping individuals, who, for some bizarre reason, feel that they are entitled to capitalize on these TLDs, and who do so purely with their own self-interest at heart. I'm really just disappointed and angered t…

Alas the Internet was created in a capitalist world, and capitalism loves rent-seeking.

Rent seeking would require the new owner to not really be doing anything (I.e. not operating the tld nameservers, etc) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking

Just paying recurring fees (e.g. paying rent to your landlord) does not match the definition of rent-seeking.

Re: The Attempted Corporate Takeover of .Org

#40

Post by toomuchtodo » Wed, Jan 22, 2020, 11:51 PM UTC

byuu wrote: post #14

iameli wrote: post #4

> Verisign controls the registries for .com and .net, two of the internet’s most popular. All it does is administer a database and collect small sums from website owners, but with computing power rising and practically no marginal cost to adding another website to the database, the entire enterprise is a license to print money. In the third quarter of 2019, Verisign showed operating income of $205.6 million on $308.4…

The problem is you can't move a domain once you've established it. I'm stuck on byuu.org for life. There's 15 years worth of links to it scattered across the web that would all go dark. Or more precisely, that would all suddenly point at spam. I could never get most of them updated. Even my subdomain from my previous host from 15 years ago is squatted to this day to serve up advertising. It's even aware of the softwa…

What if a signed version of the content was always accessible, content addressable, in the Internet Archive? Does it matter than what the current namespace is?