ICANN's board rejected ICM's proposal by nine votes to five on
10th May. But ICM filed a request for reconsideration on Friday,
arguing that the decision was "based on inaccurate information
about the written statements of various governments concerning
.xxx".
It also claimed that board members voted against ICM's proposal
based on an unfounded concern that it could put ICANN "in a
difficult position of having to enforce all of the world's laws
governing pornography, including ones that might require porn sites
to use the domain".
The Florida-based company said that board members voted with
inadequate information about "the inappropriate involvement of the
United States government" in the process. It hopes to persuade
ICANN's board to vote for a fresh proposal for a .xxx domain at a
meeting on 18th July.
On Friday, ICM also sought injunctive relief for alleged
violation of the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by the US
Departments of Commerce and State. It says three FOIA requests have
not been properly fulfilled.
According to the filing: "All three FOIA requests seek documents
that will shed light on what role the United States government
played" in ICANN's consideration of the .xxx proposal.
It continues: "Documents released so far reveal that the United
States government exerted undue political influence on ICANN's
consideration of the .xxx domain application, treating an
independent corporation as a client agency of the United States
government despite a lack of any legitimate authority to do so. For
this reason, the government's withholding of the documents
requested is contrary to the law."
Documents are available on ICM's website, including the
information provided to date in response to the FOIA request. The
site also offers an analysis of the documents, by the Internet
Governance Project (IGP) of Syracuse University, New York.
"Even with the major redactions, these documents show how US
supervision of ICANN was influenced by domestic political pressure
generated by the religious Right," concludes the IGP report. "They
leave no room for doubt that the US altered its policy toward ICANN
in response to this pressure, and that it actively worked in tandem
with ICANN's management to conceal the nature and significance of
US governmental oversight of ICANN from the public and the
media."
