Judge Blocks (Some) .biz Registrationshttp://www.icannwatch.org/article.php?sid=386&mode=thread&order=0
I'm
told by a usually reliable source that the Judge in the Smiley case today issued
a temporary injunction (Not-see below) prohibiting NewLevel, the .biz registry, from
allowing the registration of any name for which more than one person applied. Names
for which there were only one application can go live on schedule. Next hearing scheduled
for on Oct.10. More details (or corrections) as and when they are available.
UPDATE:
The ICANN Blog carries a more careful account of the event, so I've changed the headline
above from the original version which said a TRO had issued. It seems that that the
Judge didn't actually issue a TRO, he only threatened to; in order to avoid this,
NeuLevel promised the court not to activate registrations on any of the names with
multiple applicants for the time being.
I understand that the judge has also asked
for further briefing on a number of issues, including
Whether a lottery is the
only way to assign names, or if there are viable alternatives
What the US government's
position on all this is [That should be interesting...]
What would be an appropriate
bond
I gather the order was issued from the bench, meaning that other than the
actual trial transcript there may be no written order (and thus nothing to link to,
for now at least).
It would be really interesting to know how many .biz registrations
are affected by this order.