9TH CIRCUIT RULES ICANN NOT A GOVERNMENT ACTOR

[Marc Rotenberg]

The decision is available at:
http://www.icann.org/legal/mcneil-v-icann/order-denying-appeal
-1apr05.pdf

The relevant excerpt is:

        The district court correctly held that McNeil cannot assert a
        First Amendment claim against ICANN because ICANN, a
        non-profit public benefit corporation established by agencies
        of the United States government to administer the Internet
        domain name system, is not a government actor.

        McNeil v. Verisign, No. 03-16946, 9th Circ., Apr. 1, 2005

Marc Rotenberg.



On Apr 10, 2005, at 3:26 PM, Robin Gross wrote:

> I haven't been able to track down this decision yet, but from the
> description of it in the BNA e-news, it looks like strong evidence for
> why ICANN cannot successfully "self-govern" as it claims when the MOU
> expires.  If ICANN is not a "government actor" or something similar,
> which must be accountable to civil liberties, the public will have very
> little civil liberty protections online.
>
> Robin
>
>
> 9TH CIRCUIT RULES ICANN NOT A GOVERNMENT ACTOR
>
> BNA's Electronic Commerce & Law Report reports that the 9th
> Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that ICANN is not a
> government actor and thus is not subject to the First
> Amendment. The decision has been designated as unpublished.
> Case name is McNeil v. Verisign. Article at
> <http://pubs.bna.com/ip/BNA/eip.nsf/is/a0b0r3u1j3>
>