[ga] ICANN role in enforcing court orders in domain name disputes

["James Love" <james.love@cptech.org>]

What is the policy with regard to ICANN using its power to regulate
registrars to play a role in enforcing court orders?    I am interested in
this because of a dispute over CNNews.com, a Chinese news site.   The
registrar (Eastcom) is apparently in Hong Kong.  ICANN has recently written
the registrar, telling them to turn over the domain to Time-Warner's CNN
subsidiary.  There is a complicated legal dispute over whether or not the
Virginia court has jurisdiction over Eastcom, and even whether or not the
Virginia court has ordered Eastcom to do anything.  But CNN's lawyers wrote
the ICANN, who then wrote Eastcom, and say that Eastcom is obligated to
comply with the Virginia court order under terms of its accreditation
agreement.  Some of the correspondence on this is here.


http://www.cptech.org/ecom/jurisdiction/cnnews-icanncorrespondence2.pdf
http://www.cptech.org/ecom/jurisdiction/CNNEWS.pdf
http://www.cptech.org/ecom/jurisdiction/cnnews-fourthcircuitbrief.pdf

It does not appear as though CNN has taken steps to ask the Hong Kong courts
to enforce the Virginia court order, and it appears as though the Hong Kong
parties would resist.

Is there some policy guidance as to when ICANN should jump in and take
matters into its own hands to enforce one nation's court orders in a cross
border dispute over jurisdiction?  (There is no court order asking ICANN to
do anything).

See also Michael Giest's story below:

------------see also----------------------------------
BNA's Internet Law News (ILN) - 4/10/02

Compiled by Professor Michael Geist, BNA Consulting Editor.
To contact Professor Geist directly, please send e-mails to:
mgeist@uottawa.ca. For free subscription information, scroll
to the end of this e-mail.

DID ICANN TAKE SIDES IN CNNEWS.COM ACPA DISPUTE?
An interesting dispute is brewing over the cnnews.com case,
in which a Virginia court ordered the transfer of the domain
using the in rem provisions of the ACPA.  With the registrar
located in China, the Virginia court acknowledged it could
not create a binding order in China.  Although CNN took no
steps to enforce the judgement in China, ICANN apparently
stepped in at their request, forwarding a request to the
Chinese registrar asking that it "fulfill its
responsibilities."  In defending the ICANN communication,
ICANN counsel Louis Touton puzzlingly refers to the ICANN
UDRP, which would seem inapplicable here.  Full
correspondence trail at
http://www.cptech.org/ecom/jurisdiction/cnnews-icanncorrespondence2.pdf


--------------------
James Love, mailto:james.love@cptech.org, http://www.cptech.org
voice +1.202.387.8030, mobile +1.202.361.3040, fax +1.202.234.5176

--------------------
James Love, mailto:james.love@cptech.org, http://www.cptech.org
voice +1.202.387.8030, mobile +1.202.361.3040, fax +1.202.234.5176

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