For over two months now, a real drama has been going on in the usually quiet area. Two months ago, the private equity fund Ethos Capital announced it would buy top-level .org domain rights for more than $ 1 billion. Because this is a domain that is, in principle, intended for nonprofits (though it can of course be registered by anyone), it has ended up on the internet. Internet petitions and letters of indignation began, and even US senators responded. Meanwhile, ICANN, which manages the Internet backbone, and Ethos Capital have argued that the .org domain will become even more reliable and useful.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, and other organizations have called on the Internet Society, which manages the Public Interest Registry (PIR), which currently caters to .org domains, to halt sales. They say that the bargain was concluded in secret, but mostly without public debate.