Re: This looks shady....
This.
Shady = serious understatement.
ICANN/ISOC => some regulatory body should start investigating their boards, follow the money, check if it clears with statutes etc (which it won't) and hit them really, really hard. If only I knew who?
EU, Asia, Japan, maybe some regional registries if they are independent enough? RIPE did challenge ICANN over WHOIS privacy controversy, if I'm not mistaken, so who knows. Probably no US entity will do anything under this administration ...