metamath.org domain

[Norman Megill]

See https://savedotorg.org/

A private equity firm called Ethos Capital is planning to buy the .org top-level domain from the non-profit Public Interest Registry (PIR), which manages .org (with 10.5 million domains), for $1.135 billion or about $108 per domain.

With a monopoly on the .org TLD, Ethos can increase the renewal fees (currently about $10/yr wholesale) to whatever will maximize their profit, whether it is $100/yr or even $1000/yr (which sounds absurd until you consider that a .car domain renewal is $2400 per year because that's what the market will bear).  To appease critics, they say they will try to keep increases to 10% per year, but there is no guarantee of that.  Even 10% per year is much higher than inflation and doubles every 7 years.

I added my name to this petition:  https://act.eff.org/action/help-stop-the-sale-of-public-interest-registry-to-a-private-equity-firm

I also added Metamath as one of the organizations opposing the sale:  https://www.eff.org/pages/coalition-letter-internet-society

In the meantime, I renewed the metamath.org domain until Feb. 3, 2029 at about $13 per year, so hopefully we are safe until then, unless the new owners find a contractual loophole to increase the price.

Norm

[vvs]

That's no surprise: what can happen - will happen eventually, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality_in_the_United_States. Some people might think that it will last our time, but alas this is not always the case. Internet will be fragmented into different segments, whether we like it or not. There are too much money and power within it these days.

I just wonder when we all begin using Tor on a daily basis. It sounds absurd, but it can happen. I'd think about setting up Metamath hidden service just in case. Don't call me paranoid.