Good news: ICANN, Inc. loses independent review on .xxx

[Milton L Mueller]

In a historic decision, ICANN's Independent Review Process has dealt ICANN's past leadership a severe rebuke. The three judge panel upheld ICM Registry's claim that ICANN treated its application for a .xxx top level domain in an unfair and discriminatory manner. The panelists ruled that the ICANN Board had decided on June 1, 2005 that the .XXX sTLD application met the required sponsorship criteria, and that its "reconsideration of that finding was not consistent with the application of neutral, objective and fair documented policy."

The ruling's description of the events makes it clear that Paul Twomey and Vinton Cerf pressed for a reconsideration of the .xxx application because of the "volte face in the position of the U.S. government" in early August 2005. (p. 16)

You can read the rest of my summary and analysis of the decision at the IGP blog

http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2010/2/20/4461417.html 

This is an important development in the long-term struggle to keep ICANN accountable, and it should form the topic of many conversations for those of you lucky enough to be going to Nairobi.