Interesting short item today on ICANNWatch: "An astute reader writes, 'Did you look at Verisign's formal response to ICANN? In paras 3, 5, and 6 it looks to me like they are setting up a counter-claim against ICANN under the Sherman Act.' Michael Froomkin goes on to ponder the implications of Verisign suing ICANN for anti-competitive behavior: "The claim would be 'restraint of trade' rather then classic monopolization... I do think that ICANN has anti-trust exposure... It's hard to say, though, in this case who is being more anti-competitive, ICANN or VeriSign..."
The "anti-trust exposure" link is to the draft of a 100-page paper by Froomkin and Mark A. Lemley, called simply "ICANN and Antitrust?" which goes into much more detail about these difficult yet fundamental policy questions.