ICANN, copyright infringement, and “the public interest”

Last month, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) issued a carefully-worded statement urging ICANN – the overseer of much of the Internet’s fundamental naming and numbering infrastructure – to take more vigorous action against  the “use of domain names for illegal and abusive activities, including those related to IP infringement” (i.e., motion picture piracy).  [See “MPAA Pushes for ICANN Policy Changes to Target ‘Pirate’ Domains“].