The Kentucky Supreme Court issued a non-ruling on the 141 Internet gambling-related damin names the state attempted to seize. The Supreme Court officially reversed the Court of Appeals ruling in favor of the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association and Interactive Gaming Council, but only temporarily.
The court ruled that iMEGA and IGC did not demonstrate standing to litigate on behalf of anonymous domain registrants. An individual who owns one of the companies that is a member of one of the associations must step forward and admit ownership to one of the domain names. iMEGA and IGC have 20 days to refile with the Kentucky Court of Appeals and present an affadavit from an individual stating that he is a member of one of the associations and that the association has the right to represent him.
The ruling in this specific case, where there is a finite number of 141 injured parties, iMEGA is not representing the industry as a whole but these specific injured parties. So one of the individuals has to admit ownership of a company associated with iMEGA.
iMEGA chairman Joe Brennan Jr. offered this statement. “Our thing has been since we sued the federal government not once but three times, it’s no small thing to do something like that,” Brennan said. “From the beginning, the reason we kept company names confidential is we didn’t want to make anyone a target for some retaliatory investigation. We didn’t want to put anyone in the position to be on the defense because of that. Up until now, that kind of representation has been OK with the federal courts.”
Want to stop the rednecks in Kentucky from telling you that you can not play on PokerStars or Full Tilt Poker? Join the Poker Players Alliance today, and write to your local representative.
