ICANN Pressured for Decision on .xxx Porn Domain

By Jane McEntegart
published

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is being pressured for a decision on whether or not a new porn domain, .xxx, will be approved for adult websites.

Originally proposed by ICM Registry, ICANN has been considering a domain specifically for adult websites for years. The Corporation gave a green light for .xxx in 2005 but stopped movement on the project two years later, in 2007, citing concerns that it was being asked to police Internet content. Earlier this year a judge ruled that these concerns were unfounded and demanded ICANN once again consider the .xxx domain. ICANN was supposed to reach a decision in March but delayed things again, preferring instead to defer the discussions until June.

The BBC this week reports that the body responsible for overseeing Web addresses is being pressured for a decision on the matter. Stuart Lawley, Chairman of ICM Registry, spoke to the BBC about the Registry's frustration with ICANN.

"This has been a $7m dollar process, costing us $5m in legal fees and Icann $2m," said Lawley said. "Originally, the decision was politically driven but now for Icann... it is about not wanting to admit they were wrong."

A spokesperson for ICANN told the body was a "global entity" and "actively seeks the comments of as many people as possible in our community, on important issues like this one".  These comments will be presented on June 12 in Brussels but ICANN is keeping quiet about when it will actually make a decision.

Read more here.

Jane McEntegart
27 Comments Comment from the forums
  • sliem
    Hm ICANN. I wonder why Apple hasn't sued them yet. They'd say "iCAN" is a future Apple product that is copyrighted and "ICANN" is similarly named.
    Reply
  • ethanolson
    Do it. Then pressure the FCC to isolate porn traffic to .xxx domains so carriers can filter it so it stays out of the home... unless they want to pay the presumably higher rate for having taxed access to porn.

    You know it's going that way.
    Reply
  • rtfm
    what about a ".cum" tld instead?
    Reply
  • misry
    Would one be able to register a .xxx domain yet not have adult content?
    Reply
  • mikepaul
    While I can't see ISPs banning access to that whole domain to appear "family friendly" I just wonder what kind of filtering will happen. Or if there'll be a fight by, for example, Playboy to avoid the .XXX label while busybodies will demand they accept it to Save The Children...
    Reply
  • hellwig
    ethanolsonDo it. Then pressure the FCC to isolate porn traffic to .xxx domains so carriers can filter it so it stays out of the home... unless they want to pay the presumably higher rate for having taxed access to porn.You know it's going that way.That's exactly what ICANN is trying to avoid. They are in no way capable of forcing anyone onto any domain (and neither is the FCC for that matter). The problem is, people are trying to create a .xxx not to open up new domains (there are already billions of porn domains out there), but rather to create a location for the future. Then, 5 years from now, they'll go to some government body and say "hey look, ICANN already has a .xxx domain, why not just move all porn there?" Then after that they'll say, "hey, since all porn is on .xxx, why not force ISPs to filter out .xxx domains?" Then of course, we'll create .hindu, .muslim, etc.. and start filtering out religious views that don't match our own, then we'll create .communism, .socialism, .freespeech, etc... In the end, it will just all be one big, government approved internet like China and Iran. Yeah, that's the future I want for the internet.
    Reply
  • hixbot
    /buys domain www.tomshardware.xxx
    Reply
  • Parrdacc
    hellwigThat's exactly what ICANN is trying to avoid. They are in no way capable of forcing anyone onto any domain (and neither is the FCC for that matter). The problem is, people are trying to create a .xxx not to open up new domains (there are already billions of porn domains out there), but rather to create a location for the future. Then, 5 years from now, they'll go to some government body and say "hey look, ICANN already has a .xxx domain, why not just move all porn there?" Then after that they'll say, "hey, since all porn is on .xxx, why not force ISPs to filter out .xxx domains?" Then of course, we'll create .hindu, .muslim, etc.. and start filtering out religious views that don't match our own, then we'll create .communism, .socialism, .freespeech, etc... In the end, it will just all be one big, government approved internet like China and Iran. Yeah, that's the future I want for the internet.
    +1 on that. Nice job showing the potential snow ball effect that can happen. At first I did not see a problem with .xxx domain till I realized that ISP's could block the whole thing.
    Reply
  • segio526
    ICANN is such a joke. It's mainly a way for the old entertainment industry business models to survive a little bit longer (even though the industries pull in more money year after year they all convinced to governments that they're going out of business). The rest of it is about censorship and family values. Last time I checked, family values came from your family, not your ISP.
    Reply
  • tommysch
    hellwigThat's exactly what ICANN is trying to avoid. They are in no way capable of forcing anyone onto any domain (and neither is the FCC for that matter). The problem is, people are trying to create a .xxx not to open up new domains (there are already billions of porn domains out there), but rather to create a location for the future. Then, 5 years from now, they'll go to some government body and say "hey look, ICANN already has a .xxx domain, why not just move all porn there?" Then after that they'll say, "hey, since all porn is on .xxx, why not force ISPs to filter out .xxx domains?" Then of course, we'll create .hindu, .muslim, etc.. and start filtering out religious views that don't match our own, then we'll create .communism, .socialism, .freespeech, etc... In the end, it will just all be one big, government approved internet like China and Iran. Yeah, that's the future I want for the internet.
    Then will feed the tree of liberty with an awful lot of blood!
    Reply