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Originally Posted by Jesus H Christ
Yes, it has been around since day one and the problem still exists, the point. Again, it's needed to take a big step back and look at the big picture. All know Adult is what created the rapid expansion of the internet, but times have changed and almost a generation has grown up with porn.
Due to the amount of free porn and decline in revenue caused more aggressive tactics swaying public opinion that porn is now a nuisance. In short, the shock compulsion and over saturation has lost it's general appeal. How can anything free and so available hold any value to the general public?
But that is not your main problem. Many online companies have grown to billion dollar Corporations and want the internet to be a safe environment to gain/create a larger market-share. I am certain they know you all can't regulate yourselves and this makes you a vulnerable target.
If I owned an adult online company I would have sold out already or immediately hopped on board to .XXX. Besides the fact, Adult will get a well needed facelift, it will also bring back value to an over saturated free porn market. This puzzles me because how could you not support this if you were going to stay in Adult?
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To me the minute you allow yourself to be censored - and in my eyes switching to using .xxx is just that - you then open yourself up for further regulation.
As it sits now the Supreme Court has ruled that existing filtering software is adequate to provide protection from adult sites for those who want it. That is why the COPA law forcing age verification failed. So if a law were passed that wanted to force us to use .xxx it would have to make a pretty compelling argument that somehow .xxx is providing a service that this filtering software can't/doesn't. However, if we willing switch to .xxx then those same lawmakers could make the argument to the court that we as an industry agree that there needs to be regulation and it could make it easier to force us to use .xxx.
As soon as that ball starts rolling it would be easier for them to attach a clause to the law that said all cable companies must block .xxx at the ISP level by default and if any customer wants access to those sites they can simply contact the ISP and opt-in. They know that many people will be too embarrassed to do so and we could see our traffic go way down.
Of course all of this would only effect US bound sites so it could put US based webmasters out of business while those in other countries continued on with business as usual on .coms.
All of what I am saying here is mere speculation, but to me the minute you offer up some of your freedom to be taken away, those who would love to take more will jump at the chance and they will see your offer as an indication that you agree with them and are willing to go along. If it is a 10 step process to force us to use .xxx, block us at the ISP level and make customers opt-in, each of those 10 steps will be a hard fought battle. There is not reason to give them a few of them free by volunteering to use .xxx.