.org

History

The domain org was established in January 1985, as one of the original top-level domains. The other domains in the original group were com, edu, gov, mil, and net. Org was originally intended for non-profit organizations or organizations of a non-commercial character that did not meet the requirements for other gTLDs. The MITRE Corporation was the first group to register an .org domain with mitre.org in July 1985. The TLD has been operated since January 1, 2003, by Public Interest Registry, who assumed the task from VeriSign Global Registry Services, a division of Verisign.

In November 2019, the Public Interest Registry (PIR) was to be sold by the Internet Society to shell company Ethos Capital for US$1.135 billion. The PIR also announced it would abandon its non-profit status to become a B Corporation. However, this move was criticized by non-profits and various digital rights groups on concerns that Ethos Capital, a private equity firm, would raise fees or censor the domain. The sale was blocked by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in April 2020 on the basis that the transfer of control of the domain to the private equity firm would create "unacceptable uncertainty" for non-profits that relied on the .org domain.

Registrations

Registrations of subdomains are processed via accredited registrars worldwide. Anyone can register a second-level domain within org, without restrictions. In some instances subdomains are being used also by commercial sites, such as craigslist.org. According to the ICANN Dashboard (Domain Name) report, the composition of the TLD is diverse, including cultural institutions, associations, sports teams, religious, and civic organizations, open-source software projects, schools, environmental initiatives, social, and fraternal organizations, health organizations, legal services, as well as clubs, and community-volunteer groups. In some cases subdomains have been created for crisis management.

In 2009, the .org domain consisted of more than 8 million registered domain names, | access-date =August 3, 2012 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20190103210303/http://www.thetechherald.com/articles/DNSSEC-to-become-standard-on-ORG-domains-by-end-of-June/9596/ | archive-date =January 3, 2019 | url-status =usurped | access-date =August 3, 2012 }} and 9.6 million in 2011.{{cite news | access-date =August 3, 2012 }} The Public Interest Registry registered the ten millionth .ORG domain in June, 2012.{{cite news | access-date =August 3, 2012 | archive-date =March 11, 2020 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20200311050725/http://www.domainpulse.com/2012/07/12/org-seventh-tld-ten-million-registration/ | url-status =dead

As of November 2019, according to the Tranco ranking of the top 1M global domains, domains under .org were about 6 % of the top 1000 and 7 % of the top 100 thousand and 1 million domains.

Internationalized domain names

The .org domain registry allows the registration of selected internationalized domain names (IDNs) as second-level domains.{{cite web |archive-url = https://archive.today/20120605030230/http://www.pir.org/why/global/idn |url-status = dead |archive-date = 2012-06-05 |access-date = 2010-03-28

Domain name security

On June 2, 2009, The Public Interest Registry announced{{cite web |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090611060107/http://blog.pir.org/?p=349 |archive-date = 2009-06-11 |url-status = dead |access-date = 2009-07-02

As of June 23, 2010, DNSSEC was enabled for individual second-level domains, |access-date=2010-06-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612182039/http://pir.org/get/registrars |archive-date=2010-06-12 |url-status=dead

Cost of registration

Since 2003, the Public Interest Registry (PIR) charged its accredited registrars a capped price of US$9.05 per year for each domain name. The registrars may set their charges to end users without restrictions.

In April 2019, ICANN proposed an end to the price cap of .org domains and effectively removed it in July in spite of having received 3,252 opposing comments and only six in favor. A few months later, the owner of the domain, the Public Interest Registry, proposed to sell the domain to investment firm Ethos Capital. After intense criticism from nonprofit groups and significant figures in Internet history, the proposal was scrapped.

Regulatory positions

In March 2001, the Ethics Committee of the State Bar of Arizona issued Ethics Opinion 01-05, which discussed the limitations to which a law firm is subject when creating or using a website address for its law firm website. Among other conclusions, the Committee opined that a for-profit law firm may not use a domain name that contains the suffix ".org", on the ground that such use "creates a false impression that the firm either is a non-profit or is in some way specifically affiliated with a non-profit".

In light of the widespread use of the domain "org" by for-profit organizations in the years since Ariz. Ethics Op. 01-05 was issued, the Committee, reconsidering the matter in December 2011, concluded that the possibility that the public will be misled by a for-profit law firm's use of "org" in its website address is remote, as a reasonable person, desiring to verify whether an entity is non-profit, would not rely solely on the entity's website address.

Therefore, the mere use of "org" by a for-profit law firm was declared not to be a violation of the Arizona Rules of Professional Conduct, and Opinion 01-05 was modified accordingly. Arizona lawyers were cautioned, however, that a lawyer or law firm may not use a domain name that falsely implies that the lawyer or law firm is affiliated with a particular non-profit organization or with a governmental entity or that otherwise is false or misleading.

References

References

1. (March 1994). "RFC 1591: Domain Name System Structure and Delegation".
2. RFC 920, ''Domain Requirements'', J. Postel, J. Reynolds, The Internet Society (October 1984)
3. Sawers, Paul. (2015-07-10). "The first .org domain was registered 30 years ago today".
4. (2015-10-13). "30 Years of .ORG".
5. [http://www.internic.net/faqs/org-transition.html InterNIC – FAQs on {{mono. org transition]
6. (2019-11-29). "Ethos paid $1.135 billion for .Org: Internet Society reveals the price it is selling out for.".
7. (2019-11-13). "The Internet Society & Public Interest Registry: A New Era of Opportunity".
8. Robertson, Adi. (April 30, 2020). "ICANN votes down controversial .org sale proposal". [[The Verge]].
9. [http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/ ICANN Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)], Retrieved 2011-03-31.
10. [https://archive.today/20120716084313/http://pir.org/get/faq/general%23q7 Buy .ORG (Registrant) General Questions], Retrieved 2001-10-25.
11. "The PIR Dashboard". The Public Interest Registry.
12. "Tranco: A Research-Oriented Top Sites Ranking Hardened Against Manipulation".
13. "Exhibit A – REGISTRATION FEES". Public Interest Registry.
14. McCarthy, Kieren. (26 Apr 2019). "Internet industry freaks out over proposed unlimited price hikes on .org domain names".
15. Lee, Timothy B.. (2019-07-01). "ICANN eliminates .org domain price caps despite lopsided opposition".
16. McCarthy, Kieren. (20 Nov 2019). "Internet world despairs as non-profit .org sold for $$$$ to private equity firm, price caps axed".
17. Lohr, Steve. (2020-05-01). "A Private Equity Firm Is Blocked From Buying .Org". The New York Times.
18. Ariz. Ethics Op. 11-04.