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The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups championing "cyber rights" are complaining to the U.S. Department of Commerce about decisions on generic top-level domains by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which governs the Internet domain-name system.

The ACLU and the other cyber rights advocates argue that ICANN has put artificial limitations on the number of generic top domains, and contend the restriction threatens freedom of expression. The groups also say the way ICANN and the Commerce Department select new top domains is undemocratic and may violate federal laws that ensure public participation.

By limiting the domain space, ICANN and the Commerce Department fail to recognize the needs and free speech rights of individual Internet users and noncommercial organizations, the coalition says in a letter to the Commerce Department.

"We therefore believe that it is essential for you to carefully consider the substance of this decision rather than to rubber-stamp ICANN's recommendations, and to allow the public to comment before making any decisions," the letter reads. "Indeed, we believe that it would be arbitrary and capricious, and a denial of basic due process, to do anything less."

The letter calls for hearings with public comment on the domain issue before the National Telecommunications and Information Administration makes final decisions. Neither ICANN nor the Commerce Department were immediately available for comment.

ICANN Limits New Domains

ICANN in November endorsed seven new top-level domain names to relieve the overcrowded .com and .net domains. The ICANN board approved .biz for businesses; .info for general use; .name for individuals; .pro for professionals; .museum for museums; .coop for business cooperatives, and .aero for the aviation industry. But ICANN passed on other proposed top-level domains, including .kids, .xxx, .web, .union, and .tel.

The coalition letter cites ICANN's rejection of the .union proposal, which it says is based on unfounded speculation that the labor organizations that proposed the new top-level domain name are undemocratic. ICANN's procedures give proponents no opportunity to answer the accusation, the letter says.

Other signatories of the letter are the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, the Association for Computing Machinery, and A. Michael Froomkin of the University of Miami School of Law.

At least one other complaint has been filed with the NTIA over the domain selection process. It came from Atlantic Root Network, which claims ICANN lacks the authority to approve new top-level domains.

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