GreenNet joined Nominet in the 90's, soon after it was set up. We voted for the Extraordinary General Meeting resolution proposed by Simon from Krystal hosting, and we've followed the campaign for the last few weeks. It's been incredibly impressive to see how the Public Benefit campaign has assembled information and support to overturn the board of Nominet, the campaign has been exemplary in it's impeccable good manners and perseverance, in contrast to the aggressive attitude displayed by the Nominet board.
Nominet is a unique organisation in that is part of the virtual infrastructure in UK and has a structure that reflects that position, whereby Nominet members have controlling votes according to the number of domains registered. The Register have followed the story for many years and have provided regular detailed updates.
The case against Nominet board was that they were using the £40+Million guaranteed income from domain registrations to run the organisation like a private business including inflating their own salaries. While conferences in Vegas and hospitality at Formula 1 racing may be standard perks for titans in many industries, this combined with falling revenues and diminishing contributions to public benefit schemes and the board's obvious contempt for smaller members sealed their fate. By summarily deleting the Nominet members discussion forum at the 2020 AGM without warning, and demonstrating a total lack of good faith in their response to the Public Benefit campaign, the board made sure that any undecided members voted for the resolution to kick them out.
We're glad to see Nominet re-captured from predatory corporatism, and hopeful that other key internet infrastructure bodies will keep on resisting pressure from states and capital! So why congratulations to Nominet as well as to the Public Benefit campaign? We hope that this vote will set Nominet on a more inclusive course that will restore confidence in Nominet's core role as a not-for-profit.
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