Last week in Shanghai, Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the agency responsible for administering the Internet, conducted the most important meeting in its brief history. Following months of debate on institutional reform, the ICANN board approved the elimination of board positions reserved for the general public, shelved plans for Internet user participation through on-line elections and removed most of the mechanisms that hold ICANN accountable.
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Internet Overseer Takes Wrong Path on Accountability
In the age of the Enron and WorldCom scandals, it would be almost unthinkable to try to impede board disclosure and transparency. Almost. Last week, a court case involving the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) — the Internet administrative agency — and Karl Auerbach, one of its most vocal directors, revealed that ICANN attempted to do just that when it established an unreasonable policy that placed conditions on board-of-director access to its own corporate records.
Domain Name Policy Absurd When it Comes to Trademarks
Last week an Ontario court issued a landmark judgment involving the domain name Canadian.biz. Effectively, it overruled a domain name dispute resolution decision that had called for the transfer of the domain from the original registrant to Molson Breweries.
Public’s Role in Net Governance Threatened
As the Internet blossomed from a small community of users to a global phenomenon in the mid-1990s, the governance of the domain name system underwent a similarly dramatic change.
Domain Dispute Bias Goes From Bad to Worse
An update to a controversial 2001 study that questioned the fairness of the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers' domain name dispute-resolution policy suggests that things have gone from bad to worse.