Karl Auerbach, who is on the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, went to court to gain access to more ICANN documents. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs ruled Monday that under California law, a board member must be granted access to such documents.

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Auerbach and his attorney, James Tyre, offered ICANN to provide a week's notice before going public with any sensitive information he might come across. Judge Janavs ruled that he would have to offer 10 days' notice.

"They've been jerking me around, and finally a court said 'This is nonsense,'" said Auerbach, reached on his cell phone in Southern California. "You have to give a director the access he's legally entitled to."

ICANN may appeal the decision, according to spokeswoman Mary Hewitt, but won't decide on that until it studies Judge Janavs' ruling more thoroughly. She played down the verdict as mostly giving Auerbach what he could have had last year -- if he had agreed to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

"Karl won, and we won," she said. "There's not a lot that has changed, except that we respectfully disagree with one part of the judge's ruling, where she ruled that California law does not permit nonprofits to place restrictions on directors' inspection rights. But the procedures are still the same. He's back to where he was a year ago.

"We have documentation showing that we invited him, a year ago, to come and look at any of the documents he wanted to, and all he had to do was sign an agreement saying he wouldn't release them on a whim. He chose not to sign anything. He chose to go the litigious route."

Tensions have risen between Auerbach and ICANN staff in the last year. Auerbach was one of five at-large board members chosen through an online voting process, but his term extends only through the ICANN's September meeting in Shanghai.

Auerbach sees his role -- and what he viewed as a clear-cut victory on Monday -- as prompting more openness and disclosure in the future, even after he's no longer on the board.

As Tyre, his attorney, noted: "No one needed to mention Enron or things like that, but that was clearly on the judge's mind. She said maybe directors ought to be nosing around for themselves and not just relying on what outsiders have to say."

Auerbach hopes other board members will take notice.

"I don't have to sign any of their papers to get access," he said. "I would count that as a serious victory.

"A lot of it is up to other directors. A lot of what I was asserting was the right of other directors, and it's up to them to understand that they have the right and duty as directors to look on that as an active verb, meaning they need to direct the corporation rather than being spoon-fed information.

"What this court case says is: Other directors of ICANN get off your duffs, and demand your rights, and do not accept what management tells you as being the answer. Get the raw materials, and make your own decisions."

Fellow board member Andy Mueller-Maguhn, reached in Berlin late at night, German time, welcomed the court ruling, although somewhat cautiously.

"It looks like transparency at ICANN is going to improve," he said. "After everything that has happened in the last months, indeed I am surprised to hear about a decision that sounds reasonable coming from a U.S. court."