Verisign/ICANN Settlement: What exactly was the threat anyways?

Internet Pro Radio: “Verisign has not alleged anything more than injury to its own business and therefore, does not have antitrust standing.”

So why is ICANN staff in such a rush to settle out? The fear has always been that a succesful anti-trust lawsuit would tear apart the fabric of ICANN. I would expect that if there’s no threat from anti-trust, then the big pressures go away Is the settlement being proposed simply to deal with the Sitefinder issue?

Is this the real issue that’s at stake? What are the real risks in the event that ICANN loses the case? I’m willing to bet that the community is willing to sign a blank check to help ICANN take this issue all the way to the end if it means that we don’t end up selling out everything that we’ve worked for in the last seven years.

Seriously, if all we need to do is create a litigation fund specific to this lawsuit, then lets do what we need to do to weigh the cost against the risk. The alternatives are far darker based on the discussions I’ve been privy to.