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Domain '.xxx' approved for Web porn sites SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — You've heard of ".com" and ".org." Joining them soon will be their bawdy cousin: ".xxx." By AP On Friday, the board of directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees the Internet's naming system, approved the creation of a red-light district online for pornographic websites. It follows a decade-long battle over such a name. The uproar over the idea has brought together unlikely bedfellows. Religious groups argue that giving adult websites their own corner of the Internet legitimizes the content. [If those Christian nuts had their way they would make sex illegal and mankind would become extinct.] Pornographers worry it will ghettoize their sites. [I doubt it. If I had a porn site I would be proud to have it end in .xxx] Although it's meant to be voluntary, they fear governments could try to mandate the domain's use, so that pornographic content is more easily blocked. [I'm sure that is true. Those religious nut jobs will do anything they can to force their Puritan habits on the rest of us!] Diane Duke, executive director of the adult entertainment industry's Free Speech Coalition, said in a statement that ICANN has "disregarded overwhelming outpouring of opposition from the adult entertainment industry — the supposed sponsorship community" and dismissed the "interests of free speech on the Internet." Supporters have maintained that approving the domain is in keeping with the principle of openness that has fueled the Internet's growth. While the idea of ".xxx" has provoked a philosophical debate, for the U.S. company that submitted the application for the domain, the issue is little more than a matter of dollars and cents. ICM Registry and its CEO, Stuart Lawley, who has led the fight for ICANN's approval of ".xxx," stand to profit handsomely from the rollout of ".xxx" websites — because he will be in charge of collecting fees for the use of the new domains. Lawley plans to charge registrars $60 per year for the domain names. He estimates that he could sell as many as 500,000 by the time he rolls them out this summer. "This was always going to be a very lucrative arrangement," he said in an interview Friday. Lawley's prices have been a critical issue for opponents to his plan, since domain names typically sell for a fraction of what Lawley plans to charge. They often sell for $10 or less. ICANN had repeatedly rejected Lawley's application since 2000, under pressure from Christian groups and governments unhappy with the spread of online porn. Lawley has pitched the suffix as a way for parents to more easily block access to the content. He argues it will be easier for Web filtering software to block ".xxx" sites since they are clearly labeled as porn. Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Porn industry's .xxx expected to be OK'd Friday by Michelle Quinn - Mar. 17, 2011 01:00 PM POLITICO.COM SAN FRANCISCO - The porn industry is about to get .xxx as its own .com -- and after years of protests by the Bush administration, the Obama administration is standing on the sidelines as it happens. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the non-profit California corporation that oversees the creation of top-level domain names like .com, .net and .biz, is expected to approve the .xxx domain on Friday. The move would cap a struggle that began in 2005 when a Florida company called ICM Registry applied to introduce .xxx as a new suffix for the adult-entertainment industry. Religious groups protested with a letter-writing campaign, and the Bush administration urged ICANN to hold off. "The Department of Commerce has received nearly 6,000 letters and e-mails from individuals expressing concern about the impact of pornography on families and children," Michael Gallagher, an assistant secretary in the Bush Commerce Department, wrote in a letter to ICANN in 2005. In 2007, the ICANN board denied ICM's application. ICM sued, and the issue went to an administrative panel, which reversed ICANN's decision. Now the issue is back in ICANN's lap. The Bush administration is gone, and so too, it appears is U.S. government opposition to .xxx. The Obama administration has not taken a public position on .xxx. Asked about the issue this week, a spokeswoman for the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said: "It is premature for us to comment at this time." The White House declined to comment Wednesday. Other countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Brazil, have raised concerns. Some adult industry groups have also objected to .xxx out of concern about trademarks. The Free Speech Coalition, a trade organization for the adult entertainment industry, is expected to hold demonstrations in opposition to .xxx at the ICANN meeting on Thursday in advance of the board's vote. The vote over .xxx comes as ICANN is poised to greatly expand the real estate on the Internet by adding new names based on terms such as .love or .gay. The .xxx debate pits various ICANN factions against each other, observers say. In one corner, the technical community argues there should be no artificial or political limits on domain names. In the other, government representatives believe that governments will be held politically responsible for what ICANN does. Although ICANN operates under a contract with Commerce, the U.S. government has lost some of its influence with the organization in recent years with some contractual changes. The main leverage governments have is through ICANN's government advisory committee, which consists of representatives from more than 100 nations. It is likely the board will approve .xxx over the objections of that committee, ICANN observers say. If the ICANN board approves .xxx on Friday, it will be held up by some as a symbol of ICANN's independence from the United States. With some countries threatening to leave ICANN -- and lobbying for its functions to shift to the United Nations -- the Obama administration might be happy to have the group showing that it's independent of the United States. "This is a great 'growing up and moving out' moment for ICANN in its relationship with the U.S. government," said Maria Farrell, a former ICANN staff member and a current member of ICANN's non-commercial users group. Speaking to ICANN this week, Larry Strickling, assistant secretary for communications and information at the Commerce Department and administrator of NTIA, criticized the organization for not doing enough to include governments. "ICANN needs to do more to engage governments," he said, "by providing them a meaningful opportunity to participate and be heard inside of ICANN." If approved, ICM would manage and sell Internet addresses in the .xxx domain. "This is about who controls the Internet, whether they do that in an open, transparent and accountable manner," said Stuart Lawley, ICM's chairman. If approved, Lawley said, .xxx should be up and running by summertime. The Arizona Republic is a member of the Politico Network. |