No Such Weblog

From TelecomWeb: The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld an injunction barring a Web hosting company from accessing a registration service [i.e., WHOIS] for Internet domains in order to harvest information for mass-marketing use.

The guys at ICANNfocus.org have published a story today that claims that ICANN is subject to the Data Quality Act. (The story is also at ICANNwatch, CircleID -- and there was a copy in my inbox this morning; I understand that I'm not the only one who got that.)

Two sets of messages here: First, there's this organization named Center for Regulatory Effectiveness which suddenly gets interested in ICANN, sets up icannfocus.org, and puts much focus on the MoU and the Department of Commerce's oversight role. The obvious question is, of course: What's behind that rather specific focus, and the sudden interest?

Second, the news itself. The Data Quality Act (maybe) applies to ICANN. The first question here is: What's this all about? I'm European. I don't have the faintest idea about US administrative law. So, what's the Data Quality Act, and what would it mean for ICANN, in practical terms?

Comments welcome.