There is no government mandate
"I really would like someone to explain to me how an organization with a government mandate..."
ICANN does not have a government mandate, and never had one. It did previously have a contract with the US Department of Commerce, but that lapsed some years ago.
Since we all seem to be agreed that .org is a global resource, it is entirely irrelevant what one particular government thinks anyway. The issue, if there is one, is international. Go protest in Geneva.
But the whole fuss is emotional and illogical:
1. Nobody is threatening the organisations or individuals who chose to register names in .org in any way, shape or form.
2. Whoever runs the registry (which is only a clerical operation, with no powers of control whatever) will be constrained by the market to set reasonable prices; otherwise people will simply switch to other domains. That's why there are multiple TLDs today and you can thank ICANN for that.
3. This clerical operation of registering names has been a competitive business since 1998, when the Clinton Administration gave it away to private industry. So occasional sales or takeovers of registrar companies is business as usual. People should be happy that the Internet Society will benefit from it. If you don't like it, abolish capitalism.
By the way, you can be pretty sure that the Internet Society will maintain its .org registration afterwards. They understand that it's only a clerical matter.
The petition, and the protest, are rather pathetic actually. The EFF should get on with its real job.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
