[ncdnhc-discuss] Court blocks .biz name plan

[Chris Chiu]

A trial judge has ruled that certain processing fees to register in the new
.biz Top-Level domain may constitute an illegal lottery. The case centers
around the registration methods for .biz, including a special IP Claim
Service that gives advance preferences to intellectual property holders.
Among other things, the judge has ordered NeuLevel, the proprietor of .biz
(under the auspices of ICANN), not to rollout some 53 000 contested names
that have been registered under this scheme, and to give the court US $3 000
000 to cover possible refunds. NeuLevel had already pushed back its .biz
launch date several weeks, although it claimed that the postponement had
nothing to do with ongoing litigation. 

See
http://www.internetdemocracyproject.org/#highlights

Sincerely,
Christopher Chiu
Global Internet Liberty Campaign Organizer
American Civil Liberties Union