Quote:
Originally Posted by JuicyBiz
Pornography will have its own top-level domain, dot-XXX, the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers decided Friday.
The proposal was made under ICANN?s rules for ?sponsored? TLDs, through which domains have been created by interest groups including the aeronautical industry (dot-aero) and the cooperative movement (dot-coop).
ICM Registry, the company that proposed the dot-XXX domain, welcomed the vote.
?It?s been a long time coming,? ICM Chairman Stuart Lawley said in a statement, adding that he is ?excited? by the move.
?The decision should soon bring to fruition our six-year effort to create a specific Web address for online adult entertainment, and comes on the heels of an independent review that declared that ICANN?s previous decision to deny dot-xxx was wrong,? he said.
ICM Registry says it is a ?completely independent entity with no affiliation, current or historic, with the adult entertainment industry.?
That claim of independence gave ICANN board member Rita Rodin Johnston pause for thought. ?I still question whether, in fact, there is a real sponsored community here,? she said in the board-meeting debate before the vote.
However, she went on to vote in favor of the new domain, saying that despite her personal reservations about the proposal, she felt obliged to by ICANN?s decision-making process. ?It really doesn?t matter what I think. What?s important is that ICANN has a process that it set up and the process came back and said that sponsorship criterion was met, and that this board has the courage to follow that criterion,? she said.
Dot-XXX domains won?t start appearing right away. ICANN must first conduct a ?due diligence? study of ICM?s business plan for the domain, and then the board will review the contract proposed for the operation of the domain. That may involve referring the matter to ICANN?s Governmental Advisory Committee, which is next scheduled to meet in December in Colombia, said board member Bruce Tonkin.
?There is a potential that this is a prolonged process,? he said.
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This is an old article posted after the June ICANN meeting in Brussels. FSC was at that meeting lobbying on behalf of the industry.
.XXX did not pass. Instead the Board asked for clarification of advice previously given by the GAC (Government Advisory Council) The GAC had submitted advice to ICANN with serious concerns about.XXX that they felt had not been addressed and they opposed moving .XXX forward. The ICANN Board is obligated by their bylaws to consider and reply to all advice given by the GAC.
Fast-forward to the ICANN meeting in Columbia last month. Once again FSC was there lobbying on behalf of the adult industry. ICM fully expected .XXX to pass at that meeting. FSC was successful in their lobbying efforts with the GAC and the Board voted to discuss the GAC's concerns with them directly before entering into a contract with ICM. .XXX HAS NOT PASSED. We are continuing our efforts to oppose ICM's proposal. To date, ICM has pumped well over 10 million dollars into .XXX, but FSC has been successful in its opposition. (Special thanks to our members-we couldn't do it without your support).
This is a complex issue. If you go to the ICANN website, you will find thousands of pages of material that relate to the issue including numerous letters from FSC. For folks who are attending Internext, FSC is sponsoring a panel in.XXX and we will be discussing the topic in much greater detail.
ICANN's board will reconsider the issue the first quarter of 2011 and we will keep you posted on what is happening and how you can get involved.