[Anyone want to reply? --Declan]
----- Forwarded message from owner-politech_at_politechbot.com -----
From: Eric Lee Green <eric_at_badtux.org>
Organization: BadTux: Linux Penguin Gone Bad (http://badtux.org)
To: politech_at_politechbot.com
Subject: eResolution pulls out
Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 14:52:07 -0700
http://www.eresolution.com/pr/30_11_01.htm
Domain name dispute resolution outfit eResolution has pulled out, saying that
the "shopping" provisions of the ICANN process inherently bias the process in
favor of outfits that blindly rubber-stamp the trademark owner's request for
the domain. Acknowledgement of the failure of the ICANN system is perhaps the
end of the cyber-libertarian's dream of an Internet governed by private
courts, rather than by government courts.
This also exposes one of the inherent flaws of private courts: specifically,
that they have a financial reason to rule one way or the other. There are
some groups, such as credit card and insurance companies, that have
specifically set up their own private courts (e.g. "National Arbitration
Forum") for exactly this reason after the government courts ruled against
them in fraud and financial misconduct cases. Do a Google search if you
wonder how their own private kangaroo courts rule.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=national+arbitration+forum+first+usa+99.6
Government courts have their own flaws. But at least they don't have a
financial incentive to rule one way or the other. Free enterprise in the
courts business has been a staple of libertarian literature for years.
Unfortunately, the experience of the past 20 years of Supreme Court
revisionism regarding contract law and arbitration, with ICANN, NAF, and
others as examples, shows that it just doesn't work. The profit motive seems
to be inherently incompatible with justice.
Eric Lee Green GnuPG public key at http://badtux.org/eric/eric.gpg
mailto:eric@badtux.org Web: http://www.badtux.org
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Received on Dec 05 2001
Intro
