Afternic, ICANN Settle Lawsuit

On July 3, 2000, ICANN's legal counsel contacted Afternic's lawyers to settle Aftnernic's lawsuit. The agreement specifically allows co-branded registrars. ICANN's web site lies, in detail, about the agreement.

by Judith Oppenheimer
of ICBTollFreeNews.com
[July 17, 2000]

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced on Friday, July 7th that Afternic.com, Inc., agreed to voluntarily dismiss its lawsuit against ICANN, and to accept ICANN's terms under which a separate company, eXtraActive, would be accredited.

According to ICANN, under the agreement, Afternic.com will:

• Drop its lawsuit against ICANN;
• Withdraw Afternic.com's application for registrar accreditation; and
• Substitute the registrar accreditation application of eXtraActive, an affiliate of Afternic.com that will be required to operate as a separate enterprise from Afternic.com.

ICANN claims victory, accepts defeat
An announcement on ICANN's site boasts, "The terms of the agreement are identical to those offered by ICANN to Afternic.com on April 7, 2000, approximately two months before Afternic.com filed its federal lawsuit against ICANN."

"Today's agreement represents a total vindication of ICANN's position. We are pleased that Afternic.com has agreed to resolve its dispute on ICANN's original terms," lies ICANN President and CEO Mike Roberts. "ICANN is committed to a fair, open, and consensus-based policy process," Roberts proclaims incredulously, adding, "we do not look kindly on efforts to sidestep that process through litigation."

Louis Touton, ICANN's general counsel, postures, "ICANN will be monitoring eXtraActive and Afternic.com very closely to ensure that the conditions of the agreement are met."

Andrew McLaughlin, ICANN's chief policy officer, puts the icing on the cake: "By ending its lawsuit on ICANN's terms, Afternic.com has agreed to resolve these issues through the ICANN policy process, rather than in the US courts."

In truth, however, it was ICANN who acquiesced hook, line and sinker, to Afternic's original demands that it be treated fairly and equitably, by the same standards and ground rules as GreatDomains.com and Register.com (according to registrar Register.com's public S1 filing, the company invested 2.5 million dollars for a 10% ownership stake in GreatDomains.com. It also has an active seat on GreatDomains.com's board).

Final events in this matter unfolded as follows: On July 3, 2000, three days prior to scheduled depositions of key ICANN personnel, ICANN's legal counsel contacted Afternic's lawyers to discuss the possibility of a last minute settlement of the suit brought by Afternic and eXtraActive.

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