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Dot XXX is voted down, Dot XXX fires back
March 29th, 2007 by 
Jay Westerdal
Advanced word at the ICANN meeting tonight in Lisbon just came in. I understand that the board has voted down the Dot XXX proposal tonight. The board decided behind closed doors that the new TLD should not be added to the Internet root. It is a long standing tradition at ICANN to have the secret board meeting the night before the offical board meeting. ICANN skeptics and critics have been calling for more transparency for a long time, but ICANN continues closed meetings. The ICM Registry first applied for the Dot XXX domain back in 2000 and then reapplied in 2004 under the sponsored Top Level Domains (TLD) RFP. In June of 2005, the ICANN board determined that the Dot XXX application met all eligibility criteria for sponsorship and authorized ICANN staff to initiate contractual negotiations with ICM Registry. ICANN Board approved a final version of the agreement on August 1st 2005 and put the agreement on the agenda for a final vote for August 16. Several news stories hit the press and the US government came out against the new Dot XXX. The vote was put on-hold and a huge politcal game played out for several months. According to Stuart Lawley the CEO of ICM Registry, Vint Cerf, the Chairman of the ICANN board, approached him in March of 2006 and said ICANN would still be able to “pull the rabbit out of the hat”. Dr. Cerf indicated he would vote for the agreement and that he thought the board had enough votes to approve the agreement.
In May 2006, a few months and plenty of political pressure later, the board voted the application down 9 to 5. The ICM Registry knew Washington politics played a huge role in changing the vote count from January to May, so they filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Commerce and the State Department requesting all records and emails regarding the Dot XXX proposal. ICM also filed a reconsideration request in May. It took a while to be heard, but the staff came back, lead by Dr. Paul Twomey, and agreed that they would negotiate a new contract in exchange for ICM dropping the reconsideration request, which they did between October 2006 and January 2007. In January 2007, the new contract was posted and tomorrow the vote will be against the Dot XXX contract. The irony of the situation is that Dr. Twomey actual negotiated the contract but he is going to vote against it.
Breaking news also came in tonight while I was writing this story that that a US District Court in Columbia has held the Department of Commerce and the State have failed to justify withholding documents that reflect the US Government’s role in meddling with the ICANN process on Dot XXX. ICM Registry hopes to confirm their suspicions that the US Government interfered and changed the vote of the board. Dr. Vint Cerf went on the record with the Press in Wellington, New Zealand, confirming he was going to vote for it.
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March 29th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
I think something like this should be allowed. It would make it easier for parents by just typing in *.xxx in the block list for there block list on the computer insted of getting those monthly updates for something like this.
March 29th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
I for one think its great news that ICANN has listened to those who oppose it. The adult industry does not want it. It will cause many problems and will be basically useless in terms of blocking porn sites from minors.
What devilboy clearly doesn’t understand at all is that even if the US passes a law saying all adult material must be on .xxx, other countries will not have similar laws and there will always be countries who will adopt such laws simply because they have bigger worries than what goes on online. It also raises the issue, what will be under .xxx and what won’t. Another issue it raises is that if adult material is forced under .xxx then its unfair for owners of the .com’s not to get the .xxx version of their names. Lawsuits will be flying all over the place. Not to mention the extortion of 75/ per domain they want to charge and the thousands of names they will reserve for auction to fill their pockets.
Don’t be mistaken, this is a money grab. For all you domainers and people thinking you could have a change at grabbing some prime .xxx domains. YOU ARE KIDDING YOURSELF. Big companies with big pockets already have deals with ICM and unless you are a multi-millionare you will not get any of the premium .xxx names.
March 29th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
It’s exactly as wakeupinsane stated. As it stands now .XXX is not a mandatory extension and as such most in the adult industry would not use it. Why give up their established .com or other extension? They have absolutely no incentive to do so — the .XXX TLD only helps a few people, namely the fat cat lawyers involved in it. Everyone else either doesn’t benefit at all or will ultimately suffer in the end. The .XXX TLD is worthless as a tool to help parents.
However, a .KIDS TLD on the other hand would help parents more than anything else. This would ensure that sites only approved by a government or state-by-state agency could get a .KIDS domain. Then all a parent would have to do is make it so that the child will only have access to .KIDS domains, ensuring that he or she will be seeing appropriate material. Although you would still have problems (as wakeupinsane clearly stated) as to which companies/domains get the .KIDS TLD, but at least .KIDS makes sense in that it is designed to help children avoid pornography and illicit websites on the net.
March 29th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Nice to see ICANN didn’t fall for all the b.s that ICM came with.
March 29th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
@ wakeupinsane, yup, if .xxx is ever passed it will simply fill already overflowing pockets. It will not help the cause of child exploitation. More attention and awareness needs to be brought to the voluntary rating system the adult industry has had in place for years. Legitimate adult sites provide blocking services already…xxx tld will do nothing except make the rich richer.
March 29th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
I totally agree with insane. If you can’t enforce a law, it’s pointless to make one. Unless (for example) all XXX .com domain owners were required to move their sites to a .xxx TLD, and XXX .net owners were required to move to a .xx TLD, and all (well, if there are any) .org owners are forced to move to a .x TLD, there’s absolutely no point to creating ANY new TLDs for “adult” material.
If ONLY new TLD(s) are created, with no way to force other changes, it will simply make it EASIER for ANYONE (not just minors) to FIND (intentionally, or by accident) “adult” websites, with also a possible INcrease in “adult” sites. Besides, the whole idea of protecting “minors” is a bunch of crap. I’m an “adult” and I DON’T want to look at those “adult” sites. So, am I in the “minors” category now?
I would also fully agree that money is a big part of anything “adult” related. Sad but true. And, unfortunately, everything always turns political. A sure way to get more votes? Just pick a side.