[LINK] Ars: 'US seizes domain name of Spanish company selling Cuba trips'

[Tom Worthington]

At 06:57 PM 12/03/2008, Kim Davies wrote:
>... I would assume they would be required to follow their national 
>law no matter
>where ICANN would be based. ...

The issue is which nation has laws most suitable for ICANN's 
activities. I was suggesting Belgium or Switzerland, as they are used 
to dealing  with international organisations and are less likely to 
have unilateral trade sanctions, like the USA's Cuban ones. ICANN 
could, for example, change its legal place of registration to its 
Brussels office, so it would be subject to Belgian law, not US law. 
Cuban trade sanctions would then not apply.

My suggestion to move the ICANN server to the Swiss consulate was not 
meant to be taken seriously. But according to "The Law of the 
Internet" by George B. Delta, Jeffrey H. Matsuura - 2001, the Togan 
Government installed such a server in their San Francisco consulate 
so it would be legally in Tonga, but have a good Internet connection 
to the USA:
<http://books.google.com.au/books?id=huqb4yxV01MC&pg=RA2-PR35&lpg=RA2-PR35&dq=Tongan+government+has+installed+a+server+at+its+consulate+in+San&source=web&ots=8oYTWNFjmi&sig=_59beWY4GGwlRggnYY9GFFSwJf4&hl=en>. 


ps: Or perhaps ICANN should move to India, as it is non-aligned, 
follows UN model laws, has a developing ICT infrastructure, speaks 
English and gets on okay with most of the world: 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2008/03/doing-business-in-india.html>?



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                      http://www.tomw.net.au/
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, ANU