Internet governing group must give access to records

By The Associated Press

07.30.02

Printer-friendly page

LOS ANGELES — The nonprofit group that governs the Internet is subject to California laws and must allow its board member to inspect its financial records, a Superior Court judge ruled yesterday.

Judge Dzintra Janavs ordered Marina Del Rey-based ICANN — Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers — to make its documents available to Karl Auerbach, a Santa Cruz computer researcher. The publicly elected board member alleged the group delayed his request numerous times and issued a policy that limited his access rights.

Janavs ruled state law does not permit nonprofit corporations to place any restrictions or conditions on their board members' inspection rights.

ICANN will consider whether to appeal the decision upon review of the court's written judgment, which is expected to be issued next week, group spokeswoman Mary Hewitt said in a prepared statement.

"So long as (Auerbach) continues to assert that he has a unilateral right to make decisions on behalf of ICANN without regard to the views of his fellow directors, ICANN is required to seek to protect the rights of the corporation from being abridged," Hewitt said.

The group was formed in 1998 by a coalition of the Internet's business, technical, academic and user communities to manage domain names and other numbering systems.

Auerbach began asking for corporate records shortly after he was elected in November 2000 to be one of five at-large members of ICANN's board of directors. But the group repeatedly delayed in responding to his request, Auerbach alleged in his lawsuit.

He contends that despite being created to regulate and develop the World Wide Web, ICANN has become beholden to corporate interests.

"In four years, they have done nothing for the technology of the Internet," Auerbach said. "We're worse off than we were before. The domain-naming process is in chaos."

The organization needs to be reformed, he said.