In the past week, the website of Ethos Capital, the private equity firm that offered $1.13bn to take control of the popular .org registry, was updated to list ex-ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade as its joint head.
The change is significant because it was Chehade's involvement in the attempted .org purchase that first alerted internet users that the deal deserved closer scrutiny.
The sale was ultimately vetoed several months later by ICANN, but only after the Attorney General of California got involved and sent a last-minute letter to LA-based ICANN telling it not to approve the deal in part due to the "lack of transparency" on Ethos Capital.
Part of that lack of transparency was who would actually own the .org registry after the sale: behind Ethos was a complex structure of no less than four shell companies that were all registered on the same day in Delaware with the prefix "Purpose Domains." Ethos Capital refused to divulge who all the directors of those companies actually were despite repeat requests, including from ICANN, which had the power to refuse the sale.
Chehade's close link to the proposed sale was only noticed because he had registered Ethos Capital's .org domain name, EthosCapital.org, under his own name on May 7, 2019. The company Ethos Capital LLC was registered in Delaware one week later, on May 14, 2019.
Acting merely as "advisor" until now allowed plausible deniability when pointed questions were made to The Internet Society and PIR (Public Interest Registry) concerning Ethos Capital.
Hmmmm 🤔
(Score: 3, Touché) by Bot on Thursday July 23 2020, @07:49AM (2 children)
I'd call it "pulling an Elop", albeit unsuccesfully.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Friday July 24 2020, @06:47AM (1 child)
Or maybe Elopeing?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday July 24 2020, @08:03PM
Elopeing renders well in the context of the relationship with Mammon
Account abandoned.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Mykl on Thursday July 23 2020, @08:10AM (9 children)
It's pretty shocking to me that this got anywhere near as close as it did to going through. The whole thing stunk like a turd from a person who only eats Limburger cheese
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday July 23 2020, @10:17AM (7 children)
Nothing from the US of A shocks me anymore when it comes to destroying the commons for the purpose of lining the pockets of rich fucks.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Thursday July 23 2020, @03:26PM (5 children)
Let me quote Azumi:
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday July 24 2020, @12:36AM (4 children)
That's "the degenerate case of capitalism is feudalism." :)
Slight difference there. Capitalism does not need to become feudalism, it's just that absent proper regulation and, oh, I dunno, the realization that growth isn't infinite, people matter more than things, and the next quarter != the rest of history, it will.
Also where are people getting "Azumi" from? To my knowledge that's not an actual name. "Azuma" is a variant reading of "higashi" (east) and the same character as "Tou" in "Tokyo," while "Hazuki" is literally "leaf moon" and was the archaic name for the 8th lunar month. Given how many girls' names that follow that pattern there are, "Azuma Hazuki" is almost literally "Jane Doe from Tokyo."
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday July 24 2020, @02:29AM (1 child)
Sorry. I misspelled your name.
-- hendrik
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday July 24 2020, @02:30AM
And misquoted you.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Friday July 24 2020, @06:52AM
Which, strangely, is a fact I learned from the railways [lner.co.uk].
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2020, @01:51AM
For the public good we need to get CEOs into online gaming. Give them a reward button for their brain that doesn't jeapordize everyone else. Bonus we might see a crackdown on hackers =D
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2020, @07:45PM
He was foreign born, a child of Third World immigrants, and came to the US and became rich. Isn't that the American Dream?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2020, @08:05PM
That comparison, good sir, is an insult to turds from a person who only eats Limburger cheese.
(Score: 2) by sonamchauhan on Thursday July 23 2020, @08:30AM (3 children)
ISOC membership, at about USD 100/yr, is too expensive for normal internet users. My hope is membership in ISOC chapters gets cheaper, so more normal people (as opposed to telecom execs) get voted in and put a real end to this and similar stunts.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2020, @09:46AM (2 children)
why the hell would it matter, anyway?
the important bit is to have IPs available, we can certainly implement a replacement to DNS that completely ignores the idiots at ICANN or whatever the UN will create in place of it.
all that's needed is a bit of motivation, and right now there's still no reason to do it.
but it can easily be done if needed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2020, @08:35PM
And where would your alternative happen to fall on Zooko's triangle?
(Score: 2) by sonamchauhan on Friday July 24 2020, @04:35AM
Because normal people use DNS. ISOC nominally owns PIR which controls DNS resolution for .org.
Redcross.org and antislavery.org and millions of other charities paying billions to private equity owners fortunate enough to pocket 'Public Interest Registry' (PIR) [thenew.org] on favorable terms, translates to billions of dollars less spent helping real people around the world.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by khallow on Thursday July 23 2020, @01:18PM (3 children)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2020, @01:42PM (1 child)
The devil you know is better than the one you don't.
Perhaps a restart is the game plan.
Better to incrementally fix ICANN than try to start over?
Hopefully this conflict of interest negates any lingering obligations of ICANN to these folks.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday July 24 2020, @01:30AM
I'm not feeling that over here. I think turnover in devils might also create incentives to decentralize DNS.
Then Ethos will be on the ground floor along with everyone else. They don't have an exclusive angle in that case.
The thing is, this indicates a great deal of rot in the ICANN system. You'd have to at least remove a good portion of the staff plus structural reforms. And despite that, it'll still be a big rent seeker target.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 24 2020, @12:35AM
Ending ICANN would give them that angle on a silver platter, unless you also plan to shut down the internet itself.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Thursday July 23 2020, @01:53PM (4 children)
It is like these rich assholes are entirely aware what they do is ethically wrong and are flaunting that there is nothing the people can do about it.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2020, @03:14PM
Ethics are in the
eyewallet of the beholder.The most mortal, unforgivable sin in American 'Highlander'-style capitalism is leaving money on the table.
.ORG domain holders are not paying almost more than they can bear for the (intelletual) propety.
This cannot be allowed to stand; these
suckerssinners don't deserve a free lunch. The supply-demand curve must be brought into equilibrium.Ethoz, who saw this evil and righteously sought to correct it, must be rewarded for their supreme risk-taking attempt at salvation.
Hallelujah and pass the collection plate.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2020, @06:35PM
Say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism, at least they're not fucking nihilists.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday July 24 2020, @12:38AM (1 child)
They are. The cruelty is the point, don't you get it? Sociopaths revel in their lack of conscience and the sanity-damage that just witnessing their pointless cruelty inflicts on everyone else. To them, the very fact that we *do* suffer SAN damage this way is proof that we're inferior and deserve everything they do to us.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 24 2020, @03:11AM
1984 Part 3 Chapter 3