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back to article .XXX accuses ICANN of 'lip service' on porn domain

The company behind the proposed .xxx internet domain has accused ICANN of trying to weasel its way out of approving the porn-only domain. ICM Registry, which has been fighting for the right to run the domain for a decade, said ICANN staff members prepared “fundamentally flawed” advice, designed to confuse its own board of …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    "US Christian groups" - wankers...

    What kind of backwards thinking is that... Surelly it'd make life easier for parents, if they can just block anything ending in .xxx, as well as making it easier for those searching for a bit of action with lady palm.

    Anon, obviously...

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    but surely...

    'it rejected .xxx in 2007 under pressure from the Bush administration'

    wouldn't the bush administration be the best people to sell the domains...?

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    1. Mr Grumblefish
      Reply Icon

      You're just not keeping up

      with trends in porn, are you?

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  3. M Gale
    Boffin

    So..

    Having a nice, easily identifiable pr0n TLD that can be blocked (or logged) in a pretty straightforward manner by the NetFascist software of your choice, is a bad idea according to the NetFascists?

    Methinks the rest of the world needs to tell the Bible Belt where to get off. IE: right here, no need to wait for the next station.

    Goggles, because you'll need 'em after browsing .xxx for too long. Maybe a palm-friendly razor too.

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  4. Michael Parker
    Pint

    does it not make sense though...?

    'tsunami of complaints from US Christian groups, which believe it will lead to an increase in internet porn.'

    yeah, but if all porn sites ended .xxx all you'd need to do is block *.xxx as a parent / network manager... seems to make sense to me?

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    1. RanTalbott
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Down

      No, it doesn't.

      There won't be a mass migration of all, or even most, porn to .xxx. There's no advantage in it for the porn vendors, and there's no way to force all of it there. If some governments try, there will always be others that will play along to make a few extra bucks by letting the suppliers escape the "fence".

      The most likely outcome I see from this is that the .xxx TLD owners send out a mass email to the owners of nakedschoolgirls.com, et al, saying "We're pleased to announce that you can now register nakedschoolgirls,xxx for the modest fee of $5000 per year. Or, you can do nothing, let us register it to the first group that comes along and ponies up the cash, and spend a few hundred grand on legal fees trying to make a trademark infringement case. Plus hundreds of thousands more fighting the mandatory-migration laws that our friends in fundie-friendly countries are just itching to pass. We look forward to your prompt reply".

      It's nothing but welfare for lawyers.

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    More porn!?!?

    "...complaints from US Christian groups, which believe it will lead to an increase in internet porn"

    Errr... MORE than there is already? Is that possible?

    I know it's never going to happen, but I can't help thinking that all the COM/NET/whatever top level domains should be scrapped or something, so we're just left with the country/regional TLDs. It's simply impossible to please everyone, so if (say) the US want a xxx then they can have xxx.us without forcing (say, I dunno... Iran?) having a xxx which I have no doubt they wouldn't like (politics and personal views on a particular country shouldn't come into play here, even if I agree with you!). And similarly, if the USA are dragging their feet over wanting XXX, it wouldn't stop some other country having one instead (I'm not aware that any do, mind you).

    Maybe we should scrap the DNS system and replace it with something more intelligent, so rather than having "microsoft.com" as a name, you would have "Microsoft of Seattle, USA" (or whatever). This would eliminate all ambiguity, maintain and respect country and regional boundaries and prevent a whole load of complains (and no doubt, start new ones!). Of course, you're buggered if you don't know that MS are based in Seattle, USA though. Oh well...

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  6. Dex
    Joke

    A better TLD would be....

    .wtf for all the weird crap you see on the web, not just warped sexual content but content in general :-)

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    1. Rattus Rattus
      Reply Icon

      Should it be ".wtf"

      or should it be ".chan" ?

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Staking an early claim.

    Bags first dibs on sex.xxx and xxx.xxx

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  8. Matthew Greet
    Coffee/keyboard

    So much for Change by Obama

    Bush pandered to the Christians, Obama does not. Obama needs to tell ICANN to tell the Christian complainers to shut up. Everybody here agrees that approving the xxx domain is a no brainer decision. If ICANN doesn't have the thick skin to ignore those who lack the brains to make no brainer decisions, Obama needs to appoint people who do.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      You're missing the point

      Obama shouldn't have any say om the matter - interference from politicians caused the problem in the first place.

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  9. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    A plague on both your houses

    If all porn sites ended in XXX, it would only be a matter of time before not blocking XXX was seen as somehow encouraging porn, and so the pressure would be on *ISPs* to make it "opt-in". Hence, no porn-vendor in their right mind would put anything on the new domain, unless they thought they'd need the "but it's opt-in" argument as a legal defence in certain jurisdictions.

    I hope XXX gets in, sends the Rabid Religious into apoplexy, and is a total commercial flop (see above for why). For bonus points, let it also be the turn of the tide with regard to the "yet another top-level domain" business model that serves no-one except registrars.

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    how about a bit of honesty

    The IRP could state that there is nothing technically wrong with the ICM offer, and that it should be approved by ICANN

    Then ICANN could just admit tot he realpolitik of it all and put out a statement

    "we would approve this domain but all sorts of government types have been whispering that we shouldn't so we won't.

    If you don't like this please write to 1600 Pensylvania Ave.... etc "

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Well at least there international....

    ...god forbid that they would block a domain because of a small bunch of folk in a single country....

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  12. max allan
    Joke

    Lets do a deal with the god-squads

    I suggest that there should be .xxx and .god TLDs.

    Then all the religious waffle can be stuck under .god, which by the god-squad's own argument will result in increased levels of god related material on the internet, so will counter the increase in porn.

    Maybe we can have christian.god buddhism.god .... Then the Christians can put a .christian.god site filter and only see what they want to see. Certain Arabic countries can put their relevant whatever.god filter at their country's connection to the 'net.

    How about sub domains like allah-sucks.christian.god and jesus-sucks.muslim.god .... Probably not a good idea.

    Of course there might be some high traffic between sites in boys.xxx and users in priests.catholic.god.

    And maybe a there-is-no.god for the atheists.

    I'm not quite sure how Jedi and the like fit in. jedi.god seems like an oxymoron.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      Re: jedi.god

      I'm sure it would be more like "theforce.god". :)

      May the Fourth be with you!

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      amazing idea

      i wish i could vote you up more than once for that, brilliant idea.

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  13. Flybert
    Grenade

    same as every new TLD after .com .net .org

    If anything was a good idea that should have at least caught on for B2B was .biz

    they sell .info for $1.99 or less just hoping you'll pay the $9 renewal the next year

    .xxx will be nothing more that link farms to .com sites .. as will be all these new TLDs

    there's some interesting potential in .us .. including porn sites ! ya know ..

    .. www.just.fuck.us ..

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      My favourite is .aero

      Only available to companies in the pretty tightly regulated air transport sector. Almost nobody uses it, except SITA, the sponsoring body.

      www.DUB.aero, www.ORK.aero and www.SNN.aero redirect to the websites for Dublin Airport, Cork Airport and Shannon airport (except that the host header isn't set up properly for the Cork site), but nobody else seems to have bothered - someone at SITA could have set that up for all the major international airports in an afternoon if they wanted the TLD to actually be useful, but that's be expecting a bit much - SITA knows how to spend money, not how to invest it.

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  14. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Making .xxx just for porn

    won't stop anyone putting porn on a non-.xxx TLD.

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  15. kain preacher

    blame the americans

    but I thought ICANN was turned over to an international body ? oh wait it was

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/27/ntia_icann_meeting/

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  16. Alan Brown Silver badge
    Troll

    This is ICANN remember

    The board's bent and the staff are bent. Period.

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  17. Phil Rigby
    Paris Hilton

    I'll state the obvious

    "...ICANN of 'lip service' on porn..."

    Lip service... porn...

    Paris... again, obvious.

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  18. alain williams Silver badge

    .XXX is the wrong choice

    Surely the correct choice for the porn TLD is .CUM ?

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  19. Anonymous Coward
    Troll

    .xxx is a very good idea

    Once .xxx is live, all the smut and kiddy-fiddling sites can be moved to it (this must include any magazine sites showing excessive flesh and sites promoting promiscuity - dressed up as "education"; abstinence in the answer). Once they move, all countries can simply block .xx and save children from the disgusting influence of porn and other base perversions.

    Actually, we should also get the ".god" TLD and ONLY allow that! This will ensue that the Internet only serves the good, wholesome values that the world needs and we can stamp out those false idols and other errant faiths.

    The world will then be a joyous place and finally the rapture can come!

    Peace and love to you all, may the eternal fires of hell cleanse the sinners.

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  20. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    It's the ostrich theory

    The US Christian extremists are expert in wanting to abolish any sign of what they don't want people to be doing.

    Letting the .xxx domain go through unhindered is acknowledging the existence of porn, and that is simply not possible.

    So they hem and they haw and they scream at the top of their lungs that there should be no .xxx and that will stop all that porn from happening.

    There would normally be some irony in the fact that the US is responsible for over 89% of porn websites on the Internet, generating over $2 billion in revenue yearly, but given that we are talking about the US, it is redundant and therefor not worth mentioning.

    What I really think is that there is probably a good share of that $2 billion stash that is due to US Christian anti-porn extremists going for a wicked ogle in secret, and if the .xxx TLD becomes real, they'll actually have to block it from their Internet access, thus cutting off their supply of sinful joy.

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  21. Chris-M
    Stop

    Adult webmaster against the ICM proposed .xxx tld

    hi,

    As an adult webmaster (been in the industry for over 9 years), I can only see disadvantages.

    First of all the proposed .xxx tld will do NOTHING to keep children safe. The only effective way to control what your children get to see on the web is white-listing, not black-listing. So creating a .xxx tld in the hopes you can block it to protect your children doesn't make sense.

    There are 1000s established adult sites out there using .com domains. As long as those exist, it will be impossible to block porn by blocking sites in the .xxx tld.

    And no one in the adult industry has any intention to abandon their established sites. Why would we destroy our own investments?

    If you really want to protect children, you might want to consider setting up a .kids tld, with nothing but sites aimed at children. That way, parents can block everything except the .kids sites.

    Second, The adult industry never asked for the .xxx tld. In fact, adult webmaster have been and still are fighting AGAINST it. The .xxx tld was proposed by the ICM, a private organization with no ties to the adult industry and with only one goal: making money off of adult webmasters.

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  22. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    It is the way it works?

    <speculative?>

    Look at it this way:

    attendees need to have something on the agenda

    at times the agenda can be quite thin

    at thin times meetings/conferences might be cost analysed for effectiveness

    having a bundle of stuff to fill an agenda is helpful especially during lean times

    This way there is no rush to address an important to some topic and at the same time maintain a notion of effectiveness and guarantee jolly good events and outings for the future :-)

    </speculative?>

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  23. Argus Tuft

    or for our New Zealand brothers

    .baa.nz

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  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This will go to court

    The ICANN Board seem to have made a decision that this is simply too controversial and that they will let ICM sue them, pay them their $10 million and then let them reapply during the unrestricted new TLD round, which *might* happen next year. It would then be one of potentially hundreds of new domains and wouldn't attract nearly so much attention.

    It really is *the* test case about the actual independence of the organisation from the US (and other) governments. As if that were ever really possible.

    Anyway, it's a crap business model (the porn industry don't want it) so it should end up being a footnote of interest mainly to international governance students (like me).

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  25. Jad
    WTF?

    As a christian and System admin ...

    "... complaints from US Christian groups, which believe it will lead to an increase in internet porn ..."

    Have these guys not been on the Internet?

    For me as a sysadmin it'd be a whole lot easier to block the whole .xxx domain in one fell swoop as it would be for any child-lock programs on the computer.

    Adults that don't want to look at that stuff would not get to it by accident xxx is easy to spot and adults that are looking for it will find it easier.

    Just let them have the god-damned domain!

    after all: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/internet4porn

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