Strictly speaking, there is nothing wrong with the U.S. government lobbying ICANN on any decision, noted Craig Cardon, an attorney with Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton. He speculates that ICM's ultimate goal is to lobby internationally against U.S. control of ICANN servers. "Essentially, the United States does have control over the Internet because the domain name servers are located here."
Increase Customer Sales with VerticalResponse Email Marketing! Quickly and easily send email newsletters, coupons & sales announcements to your customers – no technical expertise needed. Sign up for your Free Trial today and send 100 emails on us!
The Internet domain registry that sought to create a .xxx extension for pornographic Web sites is giving the effort one more try despite the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' (ICANN's) recent denial of its request in a 9 to 5 vote.
ICM Registry has asked for a reconsideration by ICANN. It also has lodged a few PR salvos against the Bush administration, accusing it of exerting undue influence in ICANN's decision. ICM claims to have published documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that prove this claim.
ICM is also suing the administration for additional documents that were not provided. "ICM has said that the information that was not provided will show just how extreme the pressure was," Craig Cardon, an attorney with Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, told TechNewsWorld.
FOIA Watch
It is unlikely, though, that the additional request will yield anything truly surprising. The Bush Administration has a history of shrugging off complaints of power overreach, both domestically and abroad.
"It is worth watching to see what documents are obtained and how they play out at ICANN," according to Jim Halpert, a partner in the e-commerce and privacy, intellectual property and government affairs practices of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US.
"But it is way too early to speculate about the significance of the lawsuit," he told TechNewsWorld.
Strictly speaking, Cardon said, there is nothing wrong with the U.S. government lobbying ICANN on any decision. Cardon speculates that ICM's ultimate goal is to lobby internationally against U.S. control of ICANN servers. "Essentially, the United States does have control over the Internet because the domain name servers are located here," he said.
Unlikely to Succeed
There are also signs that ICANN really did make the decision based on technical reasons, which will likely blunt any outrage that may gather against the U.S.
ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee "raised concerns about ICM's ability to comply with the myriad of laws governing pornographic content," Karen Marie Kitterman, an attorney with Fenwick & West, told TechNewsWorld.
"It also raised concerns over ICM's ability to develop tools and programs to protect vulnerable members of the community, to maintain accurate information to assist law enforcement agencies, and to ensure protection of intellectual property," she added.
Mercado CEO Corey Leibow Finds Profit in E-Commerce Search May 23, 2006
"You have a whole generation growing up on Google and Yahoo. They have zero tolerance for incomplete or no results," said Mercado Software CEO and President Corey Leibow. "It's been proven through some specific stats that if an end customer goes onto a site, does a search and gets no results, she'll go right back to the original search engine and look for another retailer."
Related Stories
ICANN Decides to Trash .xxx Domain May 11, 2006
"It is unfortunate that there has been some form of censorship established by eliminating the .xxx domain," P. Kevin Kilroy, chairman of the board at Dotster, told MacNewsWorld.
"There are certain issues regarding the World Wide Web we need to think through."
Study: Domain Sales Volume Increased by 68 Percent Last Year March 22, 2006
More and more premium domains were sold through organized platforms with volume nearly doubling to nearly $18 million, while the volume of private sales reported remained flat at approximately $6 million, according to Sedo.
Lawmakers Seek to Revive '.XXX' Domain Plan March 20, 2006
The Free Speech Coalition, a group that represents the interests of the adult entertainment industry, immediately called on Congress to block the bill, saying it would not protect children in any substantial way and result in the "Ghettoization of protected free speech."
Related News Alerts
More by Erika Morphy
Ballmer Gives Shareholders - and Dell - Cause for Optimism November 20, 2009
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was all smiles at the company's shareholders meeting, as he touted the early success of Windows 7. Ballmer's cheer may have been contagious; after posting a massive earnings decline for the third quarter, Dell needed some good news to latch onto, and the prospect of broad enterprise adoption of Windows 7 could spur PC sales.
AA.com Sucks the Fun Out of Trip-Planning November 20, 2009
Using AA.com to book a flight was a painful experience. Densely packed, disorganized information was displayed in an unattractive format. On the plus side, it did seem as though the deals American Airlines advertised were real and not mere bait-and-switch lures. For anyone who wants a travel-planning Web site to inject a little pleasure into the experience, though, I say look elsewhere.
Salesforce.com Pumps Up Volume of Workplace Chatter November 19, 2009
Salesforce.com has developed a collaboration platform that puts social networking to work. Salesforce Chatter facilitates employee collaboration on projects through Facebook-like profiles, status updates, feeds and groups. The question remains whether employees will be as open to social networking in the workplace as they are in their personal lives.
Headline Feeds
Talkback: 
