These are my thoughts on the article presented here: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/08/slovaks_ask_government_to_repatriate_sk_internet/?mt=1501012087742

I will quote blocks of text from there and try to explain some misleading points.




"Having run the top-level domain (TLD) for over a decade, registry operator SK-NIC"

You should also add that there have been lots of complaints about their domain management. The prices are awfully high, the domain is currently restricted to only allow registrations to slovak nationals or slovak companies, they used to handle a lot of stuff manually, etc. This is the result of a decade long neglect and technical debt. As far as I know, everybody agrees that this needs to change. In fact, people you later accuse of wrong motives ("new breed of internet entrepreneurs") actually tried to change a lot of these things in the past, unsuccessfully.




"A number of talks and blog posts have also emerged arguing that a new non-profit organization needs to be set up to run .sk for the people, rather than a publicly listed company."

Yes, this is because our brother nation (Czechia) has CZ.NIC. This non-profit company does a lot for the internet ecosystem not only in Czech republic, but also for the internet as a whole. They produce a lot of quality open source software - bird (internet routing daemon - implementation of OSPF and BGP, used by many IXPs around the world), Knot DNS (authoritative and recursive DNS server implementations, extremely fast and efficient), and Project Turris - open source router that has not only opensource software, but even hardware designs. These are just a few of many things they do for each and every one us, internet users. This happened because CZ.NIC is obligated to invest any profit into projects that push the internet as a whole forward, and especially the Czech internet.




"Those efforts criticize any move away from the current outdated registration system, and any effort to open up registration of .sk domains to people living outside Slovakia. They are also increasingly critical of a small number of government officials that seemingly approve of and are pushing the sale."

This is simply not true. Everyone wants to move away from the outdated registration system that SK-NIC uses. FRED (open-source registration system developed by CZ.NIC - more than 1 million domains - and a few other registries; look at https://fred.nic.cz/ to find out which) is just one of the possibilities. 
These people are critical of government officials because they tried to sell the domain quietly, and without giving it enough thought. If you look at what can be accomplished with the right incentives, as in the neighboring Czech republic, you'll see where the criticism comes from. They are simply afraid that centralnic would be another for-profit organization not doing enough for the domain and slovak internet as a whole.




"And if those last few complaints seem unusually industry specific and political, that's because of who is behind the campaign: a new breed of internet entrepreneurs who have recently set up their own political party, Progressive Slovakia, and are hoping to steal seats from the mainstream parties.
The people in the party behind the push also happen to be in charge of or employed by the exact same registrars that would profit most from a new non-profit organization running .sk over which they had significant influence."

First of all, it is not only the people in Progressive Slovakia, it is almost anyone who happens to work for an internet-based business. You would need to look very, very hard to find someone who agrees with your points.
Secondly, these registrars would profit even from a change to centralnic, because lower prices and open market to anyone would mean more business coming their way. 
Thirdly, if you look at CZ.NIC again - and I can't stress this enough, you really should look at them - you'll see that it is indeed an independently run company. They have 3 chambers, each of which has different priorities - domain holders, ISPs and registrators - and a few members of the state administration. This system balancese itself really well, has lead to a steady decrease in .cz domain prices and a lot of awesome projects, as I have already stated.




"As for squaring complaints about the .sk registration systems being out of date with insisting that the old registration system be retained: that is almost certainly because it would cost those companies time and money to shift to a new registration system."

I would really like to see which companies and/or individuals want to keep the current, horrible, outdated system. As far as I know, everybody would appreciate implementing something new. If, for example, it would be FRED, they wouldn't have to implement anything, because almost every slovak registrar already has code neccessary to work with FRED, because they also register Czech domains. Almost all of them also use a few other registry systems as companies usually want multiple domains - .sk, .com, .net, .eu, and so on. Even implementing a new system wouldn't be a problem for most of them, so again this seems like a fabrication on the author's side.




"And the concerns about making .sk domains available outside Slovakia? It has become common practice for country-code top-level domains to be opened up to anyone worldwide interested in a specific ending. In most cases, it has led to a positive situation where companies use country-specific domains for that market and everyone benefits from a larger registry.
However, if Slovakia's market is opened up and the registration system is moved to an industry standard, it means that large global domain registrars – like GoDaddy, for example - will bring serious competition overnight."

This is completely okay and a welcome change. I haven't seen any complaints from the registrars yet. If you have any links which would support this claim, I would really like to see it.




"It is far from certain than the creation of a new non-profit organization that would not have its own funds and so would quickly become reliant on the registrars to function is a better alternative. In fact, you would think that in a former Communist state that the introduction of such an organization would set off alarm bells."

Again, just look at the CZ.NIC. It could very well be a failure if we tried the same in Slovakia, but as you can clearly see it is a very real possibility. There could be some cooperation with CZ.NIC or, as a matter of fact, centralnic, to jumpstart the new non-profit. There are many possibilities that this could go.
To use the same argument as the author, it is far from certain that Centralnic would not fall into the same trap as SK-NIC and pour away profits from the domain to some elses pocket.
As a former communist state, Slovaks are very well aware of the corruption that runs through the whole political spectrum. That is why a sudden, quiet attempt to sell the company to Centralnic rings a lot of bells and the IT community in Czech/Slovak republic is alarmed.




"And so, as ever, it's a case of follow the money: but in this case it is the money funding the campaign. That campaign appears to be as much about scoring political points against government officials as it does about internet domain names. And it appears to be arguing against the introduction of an updated and less expensive system for registering .sk domains.

That alone should give Slovaks pause for thought before they sign the petition to have the .sk registry "returned to the people of Slovakia."" 
No, this is definitely not about scoring political points. This is about taking back control of the slovak domain which has been neglected for at least a decade and helping it to get back on its feet. The author again claims that someone is arguing against the introduction of an updated and less expensive system, but this is a clear lie. Registrars want cheaper domains, users want cheaper domains, SK-NIC wanted more expensive domains. It's as simple as that.