Although the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Domains (ICANN) rejected it on May 10 by, the proposed dot-xxx sponsored Top Level Domain (sTLD) is far from a memory.
In addition to filing a formal application with ICANN for reconsideration of the TLD, ICM Registry, the company with rights to oversee dot-xxx, also filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Commerce and Department of State on Friday.
The complaint revolves around what ICM claims is a violation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) – specifically that the government did not provide 120 of some 1600 pages of documentation related to ICANN and dot-xxx that ICM requested. Further, the suit questions the role of the U.S. government in ICANN, which is set up as an independent non-profit organization to govern the Internet.
“The U.S. government exerted undue political influence on ICANN, treating an independent corporation as a client agency of the United States government, despite them not having any authority to do so,” ICM President Stuart Lawley said. “For that very reason, the government’s withholding of the documents is contrary to the law.”
In August, days before dot-xxx was likely headed for approval by the ICANN board, then DOC assistant director Michael Gallagher sent a letter to ICANN chairman Vinton Cerf asking that the organization take time to listen to additional concerns regarding the TLD. The letter came after the DOC received a deluge of complaints about dot-xxx, mostly from conservative groups. ICANN postponed their vote.
Meanwhile, in their request for reconsideration, ICM says ICANN voted against dot-xxx based on inaccurate information, that some board members voted no based on the “unfounded” concern that ICANN would be responsible for governing online adult content worldwide, that the board wasn’t informed of the U.S. government’s “inappropriate” involvement in the process, and that ICANN’s president and general counsel did not negotiate with ICM regarding amendments, requested by the ICANN board, to the proposed registry agreement between September 2005 and March of this year.
Although not unprecedented, reconsideration by ICANN is an uphill battle.
“Most reconsiderations have not yielded changes, but a few have. This one turns on whether ICM has identified any information not taken into account by the board,” Cerf said.
ICM is asking ICANN to negotiate a new contract with them and vote on that contract at their board meeting on July 18.
“This isn’t over by a long shot,” Lawley said, noting that legal action and the reconsideration request is just the first move on the company’s part.
ICM, which first applied for dot-xxx in 2000 and has spend millions of dollars trying to get it approved, is now considering moving forward with certain procedures as if the TLD were approved.
Lawley said the company is considering introducing their pre-allocation method soon. The procedure would allow those with trademarked or branded URLs in other TLDs to file a claim to those same domains in dot-xxx. ICM had developed the system in anticipation of ICANN approval. No money will change hands in the pre-allocation process, Lawley said.
