
Former ICANN CEO is now co-CEO of the private equity firm that tried to buy .org - feross
https://domainnamewire.com/2020/07/16/fadi-chehade-is-now-co-ceo-of-ethos-capital/
======
lifeisstillgood
In today's Slate Money podcast they interview Margret Sullivan on her new book
about destruction of US local newspapers.

She has an interesting factoid - those local governments with local newspapers
have significantly and demonstrably _lower costs of borrowing_ than those
without - the conjecture being that over the years councils have been unable
to get away with blatant corruption for fear of public humiliation- that the
"watchdog" role of newspapers is not nice journalist ethics but actually
measurable in tax dollars

ICANN is part of the Internet's local government and we need to find new ways
to keep watchdogs alive.

[#] [https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/slate-
money/id87652388...](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/slate-
money/id876523888#episodeGuid=665d43c4-c5b0-11e9-a433-3348543b5915)

~~~
AnonFounders
Random info - a factoid originally meant "a piece of information that becomes
accepted as a fact even though it is not actually true", when it was coined a
few decades ago.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoid)

Of course, like "Literally" & "Decimated", the accepting meaning has drifted
since then...

~~~
jacoblambda
How has decimated changed in meaning?

Decimated comes from the Roman military punishment "Decimation" where for some
military unit being punished, 10% of their ranks were to executed by their
colleagues.

The most literal meaning of decimated is "to reduce by 10%" but the common
meaning is from the complete and total destruction of morale and resistance
that results from being forced to kill your colleagues.

~~~
crowbahr
If you told the average American "We decimated the Iraqi army" they'd think
America wiped them out entirely. Or at least 50%.

Which is why the modern 1st definition is:

> "kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage or part of."

------
troquerre
The amazing thing is the ICANN tried to frame the decision to shelve the .org
sale as a decision that they initiated, when it was only after numerous
organizations like the EFF and even the California Attorney General steppes in
that they did anything.

~~~
slipfold
A less creative interpretation would be that ICANN was asked to approve the
purchase because the .org contract required it. ICANN called for feedback on
whether it should approve, and many in response made their position very clear
like the EFF, which lead to the rejection of the request.

~~~
iopuy
Who stood to benefit from the sale?

~~~
slipfold
Internet Society (ISOC) was the one selling, and said the money would create
an endowment to fund their work.

~~~
mannykannot
That was just the cover (and a blatantly thin one at that); the real
beneficiary would be the purchaser, which was buying what could easily be
turned into a highly lucrative business for peanuts.

~~~
UncleMeat
I guess I never really understood how. Are TLDs really worth that much income?
Why would somebody choose .org instead of .com or their local TLD? Would they
have tried to monetize by undercutting .com?

~~~
detaro
.org is among the cheap TLDs and widely used. If you want to make money from
it, you jack up the prices and now many long-term established organisations
using an .org domain now have to pay you more or have to give up their domain
and find a new one, with all the follow up costs and consequences. People just
now looking for a domain are fine, the ones committed to a name have an issue.

------
jb775
Interesting fact: The three largest investors in Ethos Capital are the
investment vehicles of three families of billionaires: the Romneys, the Perots
and the Johnsons.

~~~
hnarn
'So long as we have monarchy in the factory, we cannot have the republic in
society' —Marc Sangnier

~~~
heavenlyblue
It reminds me of a thought why you can’t bring democracy into a country by
invading it - because democracy doesn’t exist in a vacuum and therefore voting
is done not only during elections, but also with you wallet and ability to
switch jobs easily.

~~~
ndarwincorn
> ability to switch jobs easily

that's a funny way to write 'willingness to act collectively with fellow
workers'

~~~
mcny
A little off topic but what boggles my mind is seemingly everybody supports
"equal pay for equal work" but nobody seems to support the idea that all
salary/bonus/non-monetary compensation for everyone within a company should be
freely accessible to everyone including contractors and seasonal workers
within the company. This is so obvious to me as a first step in actual pay
equity. How can we have pay equity without transparency?

~~~
corndoge
I believe it's the "equal work" bit that makes that a problem. I think I work
harder than some of my coworkers and should therefore make more. Who decides
what equal work is?

I'm happier not knowing

~~~
nothal
Not to be daft, but I can't imagine a single reason this is better for you
career or labor organization-wise. If anything, it strikes me like that old
quote:

Benjamin Franklin said: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to
purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Not knowing the wages of those around you makes collective organization and
bartering harder which is bad for workers in aggregate.

------
swinnipeg
This is what Ralph Nader would call a "deferred bribe".

~~~
throwaway2474
Can you please explain this comment?

~~~
Strom
It means he was bribed (the new job) to help with a transaction (sell .org),
but to not raise suspicion the bribe delivery was scheduled for a later date.

~~~
throwaway2474
Ok but he wasn’t able to sell .org, so why did he still get the job?

~~~
AsyncAwait
Because I bet this isn't shelved for long, just long enough for the public to
forget.

~~~
bbarnett
Not to mention, unexpected hurdles (the pesky public) got in the way.

He did his part, and should be compensated... at least, that could be the
logic.

~~~
Mirioron
It tells the next guy they will try to bribe that they follow through on their
promises.

------
ardit33
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it
probably is a duck.

If it looks like corruption... it probably is.

This guy should be in jail, for attempted fraud and breach of fiduciary
duty... Just because he didn't succeed, it doesn't mean he didn't commit a
crime.

~~~
javajosh
Yeah, I don't think the situation is too complicated. Fadi Chehadé used his
position as ICANN's CEO to try to complete a transaction that would enrich
himself and make the public poorer. Now he's counting on the public to ignore
that he tried to do this, or at least not prosecute him for it, and he's
probably right. I wouldn't be surprised if Fadi to was invited to the White
House as a special adviser on the internet, or something like that.

~~~
andrewstuart
>>> I wouldn't be surprised if Fadi to was invited to the White House as a
special adviser on the internet, or something like that.

Yep, such behaviour is pretty much a qualification for joining the U.S.
government.

"Fadi, you've been doing outstanding work! This is the sort of skills we need
on the team. Would you like to run the Department of Defence?"

~~~
CerealFounder
Dont confuse this administration for the "US Government"there has always been
graft, but it has NEVER been like it is right now.

~~~
cheez
It will certainly go away if $CHOICE is elected.

~~~
andybak
Just because two things stink to high heaven, it doesn't preclude the
possibility that one thing smells more than the other.

~~~
cheez
Would you rather eat this pile of poop or the other pile of poop is not a
decision I want to make.

------
devwastaken
What would happen if browsers just decided to make their own name service?
Does icann have some sort of protection on domain names? Given that we already
use Google or cloudflare DNS, why not just make a competing nameservice and
throw icann to the curb?

~~~
javajosh
What if people used a _de facto_ whitelist of IP addresses locally mapped to
names in, for example, /etc/hosts? This is how the internet worked in its
earliest days, after all. I'm not saying this is a _good_ idea, but it's
interesting because it also serves the interest of Google and Facebook, so
they might promote the technique. Since people will only be able to see
content from a small portion of the internet (the part they have in their
local file), and would give content hosted by the big players a huge
advantage. It would also have the interesting effect of making "raw IP"
addresses more visible, and special, easily remembered IPv4 addresses more
valuable!

~~~
paranoidrobot
You lose so much without DNS where each site/service controls their own
domain.

Consider modern hosting: Load balancers, CDNs, etc all configured and deployed
on-demand, with the IPs changing as frequently as the provider likes.

Sure, Amazon lets you get static IPs.. but now I want to re-point traffic at
another region because this region is failing, or down for maintenance...
sorry, no, can't do that.

Anyone doing even moderate amount of hosting/whitelabelling doesn't have
anywhere the IPs they need.

~~~
ohazi
It's silly to talk about this as if we'd throw out dns entirely...

To address the original concern, all we'd have to do is throw out the ICANN
root and replace it with a root controlled by a new NOTICANN organization.
People were already talking about this when the .org debacle was still playing
out.

It might even be healthy for the internet to do this every so often as a
warning to those who would dare to try something like this again. They serve
at our pleasure.

We're all just agreeing to use their root for convenience. As soon as it stops
being convenient, we can literally just decide to give it to someone else.

------
luminadiffusion
There is a lesson here, brought to you by Ethos Capital....

“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity
when it comes.”

\- Benjamin Disraeli

------
ksec
Speaking of .Org and ICANN. If any one in the industry knows what happened to
.Web?

I think Verisign won the action and then the other two bidder decided to sue
ICANN. But that was 2017/8.

~~~
yonig
Is this foreshadowing?

------
troquerre
This is why projects like Handshake exist[1]. It’s a DNS protocol that aims to
replace CAs and decentralize the governance of TLDs as well.

[1] [https://handshake.org](https://handshake.org)

------
seebetter
It's rather amazing he listed his own name for EthosCapital.org. A poorly
orchestrated attempt at a crime against knowledge.

~~~
cpach
At least it’s an ethos…

(Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

[Edit: Gah, 'viburnum beat me to it:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23878691](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23878691)]

------
evan_
What a lousy bribe! I’m sure some money changed hands as a signing bonus or
something but if I’m running a scam I don’t want to have to pretend to be an
executive afterwards!

~~~
edoceo
Co-CEO, like a boat with two captains. Full four-bars right away would have
been too obvious.

------
fourstar
The guy's history is ripe with backroom deals. Look at all the "acquisitions"
he's been involved with.

------
1121redblackgo
Who wants to update the wikipedia article for this honorable gentleman?

------
quantified
“Ethos” Capital?

~~~
viburnum
As in “at least it’s an ethos.”

~~~
mapgrep
so far we have what appears to me, to be a series of victimless crimes

~~~
salawat
The point is their victimlessness is contingent on the failure to go through.

Had it gone through, it would most certainly _not be victimless_. Furthermore,
try getting off of a speeding ticket by telling the Judge it's a victimless
crime because you didn't crash into anything this time.

I'm sure it will put them is a state of mirth and good spirits.

~~~
catalogia
You're right, but the comment you've responded to is quoting _The Big
Lebowski._

------
Magodo
The Alan Blinder problem
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifragile#The_Alan_Blinder_p...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifragile#The_Alan_Blinder_problem)

------
bhickey
I'm open to suggestions for FadiChehade.org.

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
Single page with an image of a bag of dirt.

------
g051051
Fadi Chehadé was CEO until March 15, 2016. Ethos Capital was founded in May of
2019, 3 years after he stopped being CEO of ICANN.

------
Dahoon
After following KnuJoN nothing would surprise me with ICANN unless it was
good. It needs to die and everything it has touched moved somewhere else that
cannot be manipulated like it is now and out of reach of the US.

------
bonestormii_
Paul Vixie talks about DNS:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxTdEEuyxHU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxTdEEuyxHU)

------
TheRealPomax
This... isn't news? He was already involved with Ethos Capital from the start
of the .org debacle, which was one of the problems people flagged.

~~~
matthewdgreen
If you read the article, it states that his name was not on the Ethos site,
and it only inadvertently leaked into the public discourse because of some
whois data. The news in this article is that Ethos has now formally updated
its website to acknowledge him as co-CEO.

------
jpz
This is clearly the worst form of corruption. I would be surprised if there
are not Federal or state laws which might nail these people.

------
PedroBatista
No consequences so they don't even try to hide it..

------
justnotworthit
He was ICANN CEO at the time of the attempted purchase?

------
javiramos
“Chief Purpose Officer”. What a cheap joke...

------
ivanstame
Power abuse.

------
srajap06
Good to know

------
smabie
But ICANN denied the org transaction. What's the problem with the former CEO
joining that PE firm?

~~~
dungdang
a guy tries to kill you and your family. the policr stop him. i guess we let
him go free, since you don't see a problem. this just applirs to you though.
cool?

~~~
paranoidrobot
I'd prefer to use another analogy.

The head of the US National Parks Service decides to sell off Yellowstone(1)
to a property development company. Massive outrage ensues, and the guy quits
to become CEO of that same Property Development Company.

While those two things in and of themselves might not be unlawful, it
certainly sounds awful fishy. It might be worth investigating if there was
some kind of breach of the law.

(1) I know NPS doesn't own Yellowstone. It's an analogy, roll with it.

