The two adult studio plaintiffs also contend that ICANN, which oversees the Internet, provided "no competitive process for the award of the .XXX registry contract."


Yeah, that's a bogus argument, too. The model for applications during the 2004 sponsored round was that the applicant picked the string, and if multiple applicants picked the same string ICANN held a beauty contest to decide which one got it. NO top level domains from that round were competitively bid in the sense that lawsuit contemplates. And ICANN has expressly decided NOT to competitively bid out the .net or .com domains - which are worth VASTLY more $$$ than .xxx - and I know of no serious attempt to challenge that on antitrust grounds.

Milton L. Mueller
Professor, Syracuse University School of Information Studies
Internet Governance Project
http://blog.internetgovernance.org