Auerbach became the principal software engineer and first paid employee at Precept Software, which created IPTV and was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1998. At Cisco, Auerbach was a member of the Advanced Internet Architectures group/Chief Strategy Office until mid-2001, when he left Cisco to join InterWorking Labs. In 2011, Auerbach proposed an amendment to the United States Constitution that would eliminate the recognition of corporations and other group entities as persons or citizens. The text reads as follows: "Corporate and other aggregate forms of organization are neither Persons nor Citizens under this Constitution and shall have neither protections, rights, nor legal standing under this Constitution. This Amendment shall not be construed to deny or disparage the power of Congress or the Several States to enact legislation that defines rights, powers, limitations, liabilities, and standing of such corporate and other aggregate forms of organization." Early life Auerbach attended Van Nuys High School, in Southern California; graduated from UC Berkeley in 1971; and completed his Juris Doctor cum laude from Loyola Marymount University, in Los Angeles in 1978. He joined the California State Bar in 1978. In 1995, he and Chris Wellens married. ICANN Suit In 2000, Auerbach was elected by a public vote to the Board of Directors of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, as the At-Large Representative for North America. ICANN is a non-profit corporation responsible for Internet protocol (IP) addressing and the domain name system (DNS), including approving new generic top-level domains such as .net and .biz. In November, 2000, shortly after Auerbach's public election to the ICANN board of directors, he asked to see the non-profit's internal financial and other corporate records, which, under California law, he was entitled to see. ICANN initially resisted, then subsequently consented on condition that Auerbach agree, in writing, to extensive restrictions. Auerbach refused to agree to any restrictions, including limitations on what he could see, the right to copy documents, and non-disclosure. On March 18, 2002, after 10 months, Auerbach filed suit against ICANN in Los Angeles, with legal representation provided by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Auerbach argued that as a member of the board of directors of ICANN, he needed to see ICANN's records in order to make "informed and intelligent" decisions. On July 29, 2002, Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs ordered ICANN to open its records to Auerbach by August 9, and stated that ICANN