Techdirt Podcast Episode 234: Mike Godwin Defends Selling .ORG
from the pros-and-cons dept
We're back! It's been a lull over the holidays and we've gone a while without new podcast episodes, but now we've got several lined up for the coming weeks — and today we kick things off with a very interesting discussion. Many of you probably know about the controversy and concern over the Internet Society's sale of the .ORG domain registry to a private equity firm, but one prominent defender of the deal is ISOC trustee Mike Godwin, and today he joins us to explain his reasoning and try to convince Mike that the sale is a good idea.
Follow the Techdirt Podcast on Soundcloud, subscribe via iTunes or Google Play, or grab the RSS feed. You can also keep up with all the latest episodes right here on Techdirt.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: .org, icann, internet society, isoc, mike godwin, podcast
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
You're wrong M Godwin
PIR is essentially selling itself to itself, under and different name.
Stop trying to make excuses for those people.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Selling anything to a private equity firm is a tragic mistake. As soon as "private equity firm" became the buyer, any reasoning that followed in favor of selling it was mooted.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Selling might have been a thing for which i could be convinced, but the whole how and who is beyond shady AF.
None of the internet governance bodies are what they used to be, and they were better, once upon a time. Still was never down with the whole Network Solutions and Verisign deals of the early days, though.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Its not just any private equity firm, but it is a private equity firm made up of former ICANN/PIR executives.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Seriously, if they do something too bad to it then just migrate your DNS settings and investments to OPENNIC
[ link to this | view in thread ]
the comment almost writes itself.
What a nazi.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Godwin, noted conservative think tank scholar or w/e tf they call themselves now.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Worried about listening to this
I've sometimes disagreed with Godwin, but I've always liked him. I worry after listening to him arguing for this that might not be possible anymore.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Worried about listening to this
I think it was a respectful discussion, so I don't think you'll end up upset with him in the end. I didn't. He didn't convince me, but I thought he made some interesting and legitimate points that I had not considered before.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Godwin?!?
This thread is now officially Hitlered.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
People who ran off the second they finished setting up to sell it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Sure. Any of the alternate namespaces will be fine. All we need is browser and OS settings which will choose which system we are using for us. Balkanize all the things!
[ link to this | view in thread ]