Is it me or is everyone else stupid?

Oxford, England based “dot UK” root domain name registry Nominet (a not for profit organisation) has this week been thrown into further turmoil as controversially elected nominet board member and leading IP attorney Jim Davies wrote to the board demanding the resignation of both the CEO Lesley Cowley and Chairman Bob Gilbert. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the situation has now gone to defcon1 after fellow nominet non-executive director Angus Hanton resigned citing his unhappiness “about how the company is being run”.

Nominet UK was founded in 1996 by Dr Black to take over the license and responsibility for running the UK’s domain name space. Nominet replaced the former “naming committee”, who at the time could no longer deal with the volume of registrations that were then being required.

Nominet is a “not for profit” UK company limited by guarantee. In essence this means that it does not have shareholders, instead having members who act as its guarantors. Not having shareholders and being “not for profit” is and has always been the main sticking point and the somewhat bone of contention for many of its members. Being not for profit, any surplus revenue (of which nominet has accumulated millions over the years), has legally nowhere to go. Members also question the amount nominet charges for domain registrations and the accountability for its own costs

In his letter of the 10th November Davies calls upon the CEO (lesley Cowley) and Chairman (Bob Gilbert) to resign as “You are unelected. In my view, as an independent Non-Executive Director, you are both unsuited to carry on in your roles. I do not believe that it is in the best interests of the company – nor of the UK Internet – for you to remain on the Board”.

Davies argues that both the CEO and Chairman should, like other board positions, be elected roles decided upon by the membership “I call upon you and the CEO to either resign; or to be put forward under a Companies Act s168 motion to remove you – so that the membership can review your records and decide whether they want to retain you. If the members decided to keep you and the CEO in situ, I would find it impossible to remain on the Board and would resign at that time”.

Hanton writes in his resignation letter of yesterday “I do not believe Bob Gilbert and Lesley Cowley are the right people to lead Nominet at this point and I agree that their positions should be put to an immediate member vote”.

A leading UK registrar who wishes to remain anonymous has since said “Nominet are a law unto themselves. They [nominet] have tens of millions of pounds in surplus revenue and have unelected people running it who use this money as if it were their own. They pay themselves exorbitant salaries and no-one understands what exactly they do for it. Nominet, after all, don’t exactly have to sell themselves [to their customers]“

Earlier this year Nominet failed in its attempt to install a new resolution to its constitution that would in essence allow it to become more self governing. Resolution No 6 was said to be required (by the board at nominet) to prevent the company being taken over by parties who would act in their own interests. However, members felt it was simply a move to give greater power to its executive board and thus reduce member influence. This also seems to be some of the reasoning behind Hanton’s departure ” The company is meant to be controlled by, and answerable to, its membership as well as having duties to the wider community. My firm impression is that some other directors would like to eliminate the membership’s control of the organisation and are not committed to the company’s not-for-profit objectives.”

Davies has long been an opposer of Nominet – and his election earlier this year to their board was publicly opposed [pre election] by nominet – he has campaigned to lower the fees nominet charges for domain registrations, is opposed to the way nominet handles domain disputes through its DRS service and was an avid opposer of resolution number 6.

Clearly having tens of millions of pounds sat in the bank which no-one owns would clearly ruffle anyones feathers and this spat doesnt look like going away anyday soon.