In Web disputes, U.S. law rules the world
Few Internet law issues generate more controversy than
concerns surrounding Internet jurisdiction. In recent
months, courts in both Australia and the United States have
grappled with the issue in high-profile cases.

http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035778088598&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851

Nominum Survey of DNS Infrastructure for ccTLDs

http://www.itu.int/itudoc/itu-t/workshop/cctld/cctld046.pdf

Method of Resolution in Domain Name Case Not True
Arbitration
An arbitration panel's decision in a dispute over the
rights to an Internet domain name is not entitled to
"extremely deferential" review in the federal courts
because such proceedings do not fall under the Federal
Arbitration Act, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has
ruled. 
 http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1045754124197
 http://caselaw.findlaw.com/data2/circs/3rd/013713p.pdf

At-Large Advisory Committee Announces Delegates to ICANN's
Nominating Committee, Appointments to ALAC Posts
ICANN's Interim At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) today
announced that it selected five volunteers from five
different regions of the world to serve as members of the
Nominating Committee, the new committee that will select a
majority of ICANN's new Board of Directors as well as
individuals to serve in other key positions. The ALAC also
announced the appointment of its members to internal and
liaison positions, including Vittorio Bertola as ALAC
Chair.

http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-19feb03.htm
 http://www.icannwatch.org/article.pl?sid=03/02/20/1323220

Registry Monthly Reports Now Available on ICANN Website
Under its agreements with operators and sponsors of generic
top-level domains (.aero, .biz, .com, .coop, .info,
.museum, .name, .net, and .org), ICANN receives monthly
reports covering registration activity, registrar volumes,
technical performance, and growth trends. For some time,
ICANN has been preparing the reports it has accumulated for
posting, with the goal of making this information available
to the community after confidentiality restrictions expire.
As a first stage of this project, fifty of the reports have
now been posted on the ICANN web site, indexed from the web
page at <http://www.icann.org/tlds/monthly-reports/>.

http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-21feb03.htm

Proposed Clarifications, Corrections, and Modifications to
New Bylaws
On 8 February 2003, the Evolution and Reform Committee
posted proposed clarifications, technical corrections, and
minor modifications to the New Bylaws that went into effect
on 15 December 2002. In making its proposal, the Evolution
and Reform Committee invited comments on the proposed
changes. Several comments were received at the Committee's
e-mail address for comments and otherwise. (Submissions to
the e-mail address have been publicly archived.) Based on
the comments received, the Committee has modified its
proposal for changes in two respects:

http://www.icann.org/committees/evol-reform/proposed-bylaws-corrections-23feb03.htm

Abril i Abril on ICANN's board
ICANN boardmember Amadeu Abril i Abril has written an
explanation of "WHY I AM NOT RUNNING" for a new board term.
When you set aside his de rigeur remarks about
"conspiracies" -- a sine qua non when ICANN insiders
acknowledge criticism of the organization -- his reasoning
lends much credence to many of the basic critiques of
ICANN.
 http://www.icannwatch.org/article.pl?sid=03/02/22/2246216
 http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/council/Arc12/msg00087.html

IDN TF Taipei Agenda ccTLD Workshop on IDN Activities
 http://www.wwtld.org/meetings/IDN_Taipei/agenda.htm

Sex.com: Internet Will Not be Crippled
Sex.com Monday scoffed at VeriSign's claims that the
Internet is so unstable that the appellate court victory by
Sex.com in its lawsuit against the registrar "would cripple
the Internet and jeopardize the national economic benefit
for e-commerce."
 http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/1594541

AFNIC Sees Problems With Internationalised Domain Names
AFNIC (Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en
Coopération), the French Internet Naming Association, has
published some initial comments on the forthcoming
introduction of internationalised domain names (IDNs),
forecasting issues of importance to intellectual property
guardians or domain name portfolio managers.
 http://www.demys.net/news/2003/02/20_af.htm
 http://www.nic.fr/nouvelles/2003/IDN.html (French) 

Got a Feeling Inside - ICANN Explain
Many people feel that ICANN's domain name selection process
was an inside job that undermined the idea of democracy on
the Internet.
 http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/7408.html

Re-Registered Domains Not "Abusive Registrations"
Zara Holdings Limited - former registrants of a desirable
three letter .co.uk domain - have lost a domain name
dispute under Nominet's Dispute Resolution Service. The
action was brought after Zara did not renew their name
allowing it to be re-registered by a domain speculator.
 http://www.demys.net/news/2003/02/18_za.htm

Top-Level Domain Names Not Only for Dutch
The registration of domain names in the '.nl' top-level
domain is carried out by the Foundation for Internet Domain
Registration (SIDN) in the Netherlands. These domain names
may only be registered with the SIDN through its
participants, which are mainly internet service providers.

http://www.internationallawoffice.com/Ld.cfm?i=47867&Newsletters__Ref=6226

Barcelona.com Hearing Update - from UDRPlaw.net
http://www.udrplaw.net
On Friday, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear
oral arguments in the landmark Barcelona.com case.  The
case will determine whether the District Court for the
Eastern District of Virginia erred when it ruled in favor
of the City of Barcelona in enforcing its Spanish
trademarks against the registrant of a .com domain name
identical to the City's name.
In 2000, the City prevailed in a WIPO decision against Juan
Nogueras, the registrant of Barcelona.com. The WIPO
decision has been frequently criticized because the UDRP
does not provide for special protection to geographic
entities, such as cities and municipalities, and few other
UDRP decisions involving city names have been issued the
same way.
More will be published on this important case this week.
When a decision is released by the Fourth Circuit (probably
sometime later this year), it will be posted on this site.

Turkmenistan Opens Up .tm Domain - UDRPlaw.net
http://www.udrplaw.net/
Turkmenistan has opened up its .tm country code to domain
name registration on a first-come, first-served basis.
Nic.tm has also adopted the UDRP and appointed WIPO to
administer its domain name disputes.
 http://nic.tm/PR/reopening.pdf

WIPO decision - Playboy Enterprises International, Inc. v.
Domain Active Pty Limited
Found domain names are 'confusingly similar', websites
contained 'content devoted to the Playboy lifestyle' and
domain names were registered in bad faith.

http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2002/d2002-1156.html


WIPO decision - Su Hardy v. Lou Crawford
1) that the domain name registered by the Respondent is
identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service
mark in which the Complainant has rights; and
2) that the Respondent has no rights or legitimate
interests in respect of the domain name; and
3) that the domain name has been registered and is being
used in bad faith.

http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2002/d2002-1123.html
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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Sources include Quicklinks (www.qlinks.net), Moreover
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