Privilege XXX?

The complex and (to the uninitiated) arcane question of legal privilege lies at the heart of the next round of disputes about ICANN's rejection of the .xxx domain. As ever, the Register provides excellent coverage of this (and the link in turn links to the less controversial introduction of ".mobi".)

Since the end of the last year, there has been increasing concern at the impact of the US government on the decision making processes of ICANN. Those making the .xxx application sought information from the US Department of Commerce under freedom of information legislation to clarify their conduct regarding .xxx.

The DoC redacted (blanked out) parts of the documents produced - a subject and practice dear to my heart from years of experience. This is now being challenged on the basis that the documents can only be privileged if ICANN is a federal agency or under government control. Scylla and Charybdis anyone? Thought ICANN was distinct from the US government.

As the Register points out, nice symetry in this application being made at the same time as plans for the first meeting of the Internet Governance Forum. This was established at the WSIS to allow global involvement in internet governance, but no substantive change, on the basis that the US Government wasn't really in charge just now. More details of this are at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/25/igf_blueprint/

Hmmm - interesting times.