|
Blogger forces Irish domain registry into sunlight
09/05/2003
Irish blogger and Internet consultant Antoin O'Lachtnain has succeeded in his bid to force the secretive company running Ireland's .ie domain into the open.
Following a lengthy battle with IE Domain Registry Ltd (IEDR) and the University College Dublin (the original owner of the registry) using the Freedom of Information Act, an appeal has finally seen the not-for-profit director-owned company ordered to release large amounts of correspondence concerning the .ie domain.
The company has attempted to block the release of any material by claiming alternately that it is commercially sensitive, would break others' privacy, may prejudice upcoming trials, would break the laywer-client privilege and doesn't exist or can't be found.
The Information Commissioner refused to entertain nearly all grounds and ordered the information be released, despite IEDR and UCD's concerns that doing so would "expose the company to prejudicial media comment".
IEDR has eight weeks to appeal on a point of law, after which the workings of Ireland's most important Internet company will be laid bare. Mr O'Lachtnain told us he doesn't even know if there will be anything of interest within the huge pile of paperwork but his intention was to force greater transparency onto the company.
He doesn't intend to stop either until the private company running a very public resource is made more accountable, in line with domain registries across the world. "We want IEDR to immediately publish its accounts, replace its current board members and introduce new procedures," he told us.
Despite officially spinning off IEDR in July 2000, UCD remains in control of the company, remains registered as its official owner at IANA, and chooses four of the company's five directors. IEDR currently charges one of the highest prices in the world for its .ie domain. For one year, and assuming your registration is accepted, a .ie domain will cost you €69.95 or £49.58. This compares to £36.36 for purely commercial domain .tv; £10.56 for a .com
domain..
More details at: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/30636.html
|
