AP, 3/30/07 - The agency that sets the Internet addressing guidelines influencing how people navigate the Web defeated a proposal Friday to give adult Web sites their own ".xxx" domain.

Many in the adult-entertainment industry and religious groups alike had criticized the plan, which the Canadian government also warned this week could leave the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in the tricky business of content regulation.

The 9-5 decision by ICANN's board came nearly seven years after the proposal was first floated by ICM Registry LLC. It was the third time ICANN has rejected such a bid. Paul Twomey, ICANN's chief executive, who had described the proposal this week as "clearly controversial, clearly polarizing" abstained from the vote but did not say why.

"We are extremely disappointed by the board's action today," said Stuart Lawley, ICM's president and chief executive. "It is not supportable for any of the reasons articulated by the board, ignores the rules ICANN itself adopted for the RFP (request for proposal), and makes a mockery of ICANN bylaws' prohibition of unjustifiable discriminatory treatment."

He added that ICM would pursue the matter further and when pressed by an Associated Press reporter if that could include a lawsuit against ICANN, Lawley said: "I would go so far as to say likely."

What is certain is that ICANN will no longer hear the proposal but that does not mean that an entirely new application could be drawn up and offered for consideration.

Nearly all of the board members who voted against approving the domain said they were concerned about the possibility that ICANN could find itself in the content regulation business if the domain name was approved. Others criticized that, saying ICANN should not block new domains over fears like that, noting that local, state and national laws could be used to decide what is pornographic and what is not.

"My decision turned on one point and one point only," said board member Steve Goldstein ahead of the vote. "The last point in our board's resolution that under the revised agreement that we, ICANN, would be forced to assume ongoing management and oversight roles regarding the content and that is inconsistent with ICANN's technical mandate."

Lawley criticized ICANN board members who said they feared the domain would result in content management, telling the AP that "the part of the contract they are now claiming would lead them to content management was put in by them during the contract negotiations."

Other board members said they believed that opposition to the domain by the adult industry, including Web masters, content providers and others, was proof that the issue was divisive and that ".xxx" was not a welcome domain.

"This application doesn't meet the request for proposals mainly on the supporting community," said board member Raimundo Beca of Chile, who voted against the domain. The adult industry, he added, "has been from the very beginning so split about this."

Porn sites opposed to ".xxx" were largely concerned that the domain name, while billed as voluntary, would make it easier for governments to later mandate its use and push sexual information into what the adult-entertainment industry terms an online ghetto.

ICM though had said it would fight any government effort to compel its use and cited preregistrations of more than 76,000 names as evidence of support.

Religious groups worried that ".xxx" would legitimize and expand the number of adults sites, which more than a third of U.S. Internet users visit each month, according to comScore Media Metrix. The Web site measurement firm said 4 percent of all Web traffic and 2 percent of all time spent Web surfing involved an adult site.

It was the third time that ICANN rejected the proposal. The agency tabled and effectively rejected a similar proposal in 2000 out of fear the ".xxx" domain would force the body into content regulation.

ICM resubmitted its proposal in 2004, this time structuring it with a policy-setting organization to free ICANN of that task. But many board members worried that the language of the proposed contract was vague and could kick the task back to ICANN. The board rejected the 2004 proposal last May.

ICANN revived the proposal in January after ICM agreed to hire independent organizations to monitor porn sites' compliance with the new rules, which would be developed by a separate body called the International Foundation for Online Responsibility.

ICM revised it again a month later to clarify ICANN's enforcement abilities and to underscore the independence of the policy-making body.

More ...

Did US Government Pressure ICANN to Drop XXX Domain?

Times Online, 5/19/06 - ICM Registry, the company behind the unsuccessful bid for a .xxx domain for internet pornography, is to take the United States government to court over the issue.

Earlier this month, ICM's proposals were voted down by ICANN, the American-based body that controls the allocation of internet domain names. Opposition to the proposal centred largely on its effective creation of an online red-light zone,

The company claims that ICANN, which has a mandate to operate independently, was subjected to undue pressure from Washington over the issue.

It is understood that ICM, which is believed to have invested several million dollars during a six-year campaign to have .xxx approved, will file its case against the US Department of Commerce (DoC) in the Washington district of Columbia later today.

ICM hopes to gain access to information it alleges was withheld by the DoC in a freedom of information act (FOIA) request made in October 2005.

Stuart Lawley, the head of ICM Registry, told Times Online that this information will provide the "extra evidence that provides the irrefutable proof" that the US Government intervened in the issue to prevent .xxx going ahead.

The DoC has said that it "plays no role" in the day-to-day running of the internet - something that was the subject of intense international scrutiny at a high profile international internet summit in Tunisia in November.

 ICANN's Decision: No XXX Domain for Porn

BBC News, 5/11/06 - Internet regulators rejected plans to create a domain for pornography websites ending with the .xxx suffix.

Advocates of the exclusive domain had argued that it would make it easier for web users to locate - or avoid - pornography online.

Conservative opponents of the plan said it would legitimise pornography, while opponents in the porn industry warned it could lead to more state control.

Internet regulator Icann's chief said the decision was not political.

"The heart of the decision today was not driven by a political consideration," Paul Twomey told the Associated Press news agency.

The idea for an .xxx domain was first floated in 2001.

A final decision on approving the exclusive porn domain has been delayed several times - most recently in December.

In August, the decision was postponed following a request from the US Department of Commerce which had "concerns" about the domain.

Plans for the .xxx have been criticised by many people and organisations, among them former Icann board member Karl Auerbach and US conservative religious groups, including the Family Research Council.

ICM Registry, the company that proposed and plans to run the .xxx, said the domain would have made it easier to find and filter pornographic material online.

Critics said that because signing up for .xxx was voluntary, there was no guarantee pornographers would move material to the new domain, not least because many have established themselves on other well-known sites.

From The Associated Press ...

The decision from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers reverses its preliminary approval last June to create a ".xxx'' domain name for voluntary use by the adult entertainment industry.

ICANN had postponed making a final decision in August after the U.S. government stepped in just days before a scheduled meeting to underscore objections it had received, an intervention that had led some ICANN critics to question the organization's independence.

"The board was certainly very conscious of that (the controversy) ... but the heart of the decision today was not driven by a political consideration,'' ICANN Chief Executive Paul Twomey said in an interview that followed more than an hour of discussion in a closed teleconference meeting.

Twomey said the decision largely came down to whether the creation of "xxx'' might put ICANN in a difficult position of having to enforce all of the world's laws governing pornography, including ones that might require porn sites to use the domain. Speech-related laws, he noted, often conflict with one another.

He said concerns raised by various governments around the world did prompt the company proposing the domain, ICM Registry Inc. of Jupiter, Fla., to make changes in its bid, but the changes did not address all of the questions concerning enforcement.

ICANN's rejection of ".xxx'' in a 9-5 vote ends, for now, a 6-year-old effort by ICM to establish a domain for the porn industry. ICANN first tabled its bid in 2000 out of fear it would be getting into content control.

ICM resubmitted its bid in 2004, this time structuring it with a policy-setting organization to free ICANN of that task. But the language of the proposed contract was vague, Twomey said, and a majority of the board felt that one interpretation could kick the task back to ICANN.

When the board initially voted last year to move forward with ".xxx,'' the contract details had yet to be written.

ICM argued the domain would help the $12 billion online porn industry clean up its act. Those using the domain would have to abide by yet-to-be-written rules designed to bar such trickery as spamming and malicious scripts.

Anti-porn advocates, however, countered that sites would be free to keep their current ".com'' address, in effect making porn more easily accessible by creating yet another channel to house it.

And they say such a domain name would legitimize adults sites, which 2 in 5 Internet users visit each month, according to tracking by comScore Media Metrix.

Many porn sites also objected, fearing that such a domain would pave the way for governments - the United States or repressive regimes abroad - or even private industry to filter speech that is protected here under the First Amendment.

Democratic Sens. Max Baucus of Montana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas have introduced legislation that would create a mandatory ".xxx.''

The porn industry trade group Free Speech Coalition believes a domain name for kids-friendly sites would be more appropriate.

Twomey said the board took the porn sites' concerns as a sign ICM did not fully represent the industry, a criteria required in the current round of domains.

Democratic Senators Want XXX Domain

AP, 3/16/06 - WASHINGTON - Two Democratic senators want Internet pornography segregated from other Web content in an ''.xxx'' domain -- a red-light district on the Internet.

Senators Max Baucus of Montana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas introduced legislation Thursday that would direct the Bush administration to create the new Internet domain.

Pornographic Web sites would be required to locate there, consolidating them all in one Internet neighborhood that would allow parents to filter material they consider inappropriate for their children to view.

Baucus compares the idea to city zoning for adult stores.

''Parents should not have to worry about their children surfing into Web sites for adults, either on purpose or by accident,'' he said.

Religious Right and Porn Industry Don't Want XXX Domain

The legislation may be hard to pass, with Christian conservatives and the pornography industry both opposing the measure.

The Free Speech Coalition, one of the nation's largest adult entertainment trade groups, calls the idea ''ghettoization'' and says it could be unconstitutional.

''The adult Internet is not like brick and mortar,'' said spokesman Tom Hymes, who predicted that forcing international adult sites to move from ''.com'' to ''.xxx'' would be difficult.

The conservative groups Focus on the Family, Family Research Council and others at least temporarily blocked creation of a ''.xxx'' domain last year by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

The domain legitimizes porn and gives false hope to parents, the Family Research Council said at the time.

So many complaints were received that ICANN put off a final decision on creation of the domain.

Porn Domain, .XXX, Debate Continues

AP, 2/6/06 - It’s rare that Christian conservatives and the pornography industry agree on anything. But a congressional proposal to create a new Internet domain has made odd bedfellows of the two groups.

Some moderate Democrats in Congress are pushing for an Internet red-light district where pornography would be isolated on an ".xxx" domain. Conservatives and the adult entertainment industry are fighting the idea — but for dramatically different reasons.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is crafting the legislative package that would require the Department of Commerce to create the new domain name. Pornographic Web sites would be required to abandon their ".com" addresses, ideally consolidating them all in one Internet neighborhood.

The idea, supporters say, is to clean up the Web as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani cleaned up Times Square.

It’s similar to the actions a lot of communities take in zoning adult stores, Baucus said.

"Among all of the ideas I’ve heard of, I think it’s the best," he said.

Baucus, Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor and other moderate Democrats say they see an age in which sophisticated parental filters easily could block unseemly Web sites from children’s wandering clicks. The idea is part of a larger legislative package Baucus is offering that would attempt to protect children from pornographic Web sites and give law enforcement more resources to crack down on the worst offenders.

Pryor said Congress needs to thoroughly explore the .xxx idea.

"This is not limited to (protecting) children," he said of pornography on the Internet. "There are millions and millions of adults that don’t want to see it."

But the groups fighting the idea say it is unrealistic and would be difficult and costly to implement.

The Free Speech Coalition, one of the nation’s largest adult entertainment trade groups, calls the idea the "ghettoization" of their content and says it could be unconstitutional.

"It’s a bad idea that won’t work," spokesman Tom Hymes said. He said many Web sites would lose business if forced to change domain names, and the precedent would set a standard of targeting the adult industry for regulation.

The industry has proposed a ".kids" domain instead, arguing that restricting children to one domain would be more realistic.

"It is far easier for parents to filter content in than it is to filter content out," said Hymes.

That idea has gained little traction, though, as influential conservative groups have strongly lobbied on the issue and argued that the Internet should simply be scrubbed of all offensive content.

Those groups, of course, approach the issue from the opposite perspective of the industry groups. They believe a .xxx domain could lead to a huge increase in pornographic content on the Internet, since it would be almost impossible to rid the .com domain of all adult Web sites.

"You don’t even know if this will work," said Daniel Weiss, a senior analyst on media and sexuality for Focus on the Family.

Conservative groups like Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council have been fighting the idea for some time, and have already succeeded in blocking the domain temporarily. Last summer, the groups complained to the Bush administration after the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, temporarily approved a voluntary .xxx domain.

Michael Gallagher, the Commerce Department official who oversees ICANN, wrote the chairman of ICANN’s board in August saying the department had received more than 6,000 letters from individuals expressing concern about the new domain. A final decision was delayed soon afterward.

In December, ICANN delayed action on the domain for the third time, saying a decision could come in the first few months of 2006.

Other administration officials seem conflicted about the idea.

At a January hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Laura Parsky was hesitant after Pryor questioned her about it.

"There are issues of practicality, and how it would be implemented and whether it would be effective," she said.

Baucus believes it couldn’t hurt to try.

"It’s a practical solution to a pernicious problem," he said. "My sense is that it’s gaining currency."

.XXX Domain Dropped from ICANN’s Agenda

Personal Computer World, 12/4/05 - The proposed .xxx porn domain has been mysteriously dropped from ICANN’s board meeting agenda.

The news was presented by ICANN chairman Vint Cerf, who surprised delegates at the open meeting of ICANN’s governmental advisory committee (GAC) in Vancouver on Tuesday by announcing that the debate surrounding the new domain had been dropped from the board meeting agenda.

Cerf said that more time was needed to review a 350-page ICANN report on the domain's feasibility before discussions could proceed.

But analysts point out that the unreleased report has already been available for some time and that it is broadly in favour of granting the domain anyway.

According to Techdirt.com other possible reasons for the delay are EU and US state intervention.

EU commissioner Viviane Reding is said to have called the head of ICANN Paul Twomey and threatened to withdraw all the EU's representatives unless the issue was pulled.

Meanwhile various factions within the US government are also said to be alarmed at the idea of a porn-only domain.

ICANN Official Urges More Debate on .XXX

MARINA DEL REY, Calif.- XBiz - 8/15/05 - ICANN has made public a letter from the chairman of its Governmental Advisory Committee to its board of directors stating his concerns about international opposition to the organization’s pending approval of the .XXX sponsored top-level domain.

Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi said the governments of several countries had expressed strong positions and a “sense of discomfort” regarding the new TLD during a recent ICANN meeting in Luxembourg.

“I believe the board should allow time for additional governmental and public policy concerns to be expressed before reaching a final decision on this TLD,” Tarmizi concludes in his letter.

The .XXX domain has been the subject of ongoing debate since ICANN announced on June 1 that it had entered into technical and commercial negotiations with Toronto-based ICM Registry to act as official registry for the TLD, making adoption of the new domain likely.

Many adult webmasters have complained that use of the .XXX suffix would lead to widespread trademark disputes with cybersquatters, open the possibility for mandatory migration to the TLD and ultimately segregate the adult Internet.

It would seem that their fears are not unfounded, given headlines like the one on an Aug. 13 Salt Lake Tribute article that announced, “Triple-X Domain A Way to Regulate Porn.”

Similarly, in an article published Aug. 14 in the National Ledger, Republican strategist Nathan Tabor commented, “I believe we should use the tactics of liberals — who always love to tax and regulate everything — and make all porn sites drop their current .com domains and go to the .XXX URL exclusively.”

ICM has responded to concerns regarding mandatory migration and cybersquatting on both XBiz and other industry sites, but if the recent panel discussion between ICM executives and industry representatives at Internext is any indication, many webmasters remain unconvinced.

Some are still holding out hope that the Commerce Department will intervene to block the .XXX TLD from going into effect, and their hopes were bolstered by an open letter from Commerce reiterating the agency’s ongoing control of the Internet’s root servers.

But a Commerce official told XBiz in June that his department neither passes judgment on the merits of any TLD nor has the authority to stop ICANN from approving a TLD, according to the government’s agreement with the organization. Rather, he said, the department is responsible only for technical aspects of implementation, including adding .XXX to root servers.

Still, it seems that .XXX is not entirely a done deal just yet, especially if Tarmizi’s letter results in the topic being added to the agendas for both ICANN’s September board meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, and the United Nations’ November summit meeting on the information age, which will take place in Tunisia.

Also see ...
Why ICANN Rejected the XXX Domain
Internet Porn Exists And .XXX Is Just Simpler
XXX Domain Proposal Panders to Porn Industry says Family Research Council
In Favor of the .XXX Domain
Bush Wants Time to Study .XXX Domains
Why Should the United States Government Control the Internet?
The XXX Domain Debate

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