Join AUWCL, PIJIP, the Internet Governance Lab, & WCL Intellectual Property Brief for a Conversation on
The Controversial Sale of the .ORG Registry
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
12:00 - 2:00 pm
American University Washington College of Law
Room NT01 Ceremonial Classroom
Lunch Provided | Registration: https://tiny.cc/dot-org
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. 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 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)
Facilitator: Kathryn Kleiman
IP & Tech Clinic, Washington College of Law and Former Director of Policy, Public Interest Registry (.ORG)