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Plans for creation of adult .xxx dotcom are slammed The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers said it is due to begin negotiations to discuss the technical issues and prices for the new domain. Icann said the voluntary measure would help protect children from "online smut" and would be a step towards promoting responsibility among adult websites. Karl Auerbach, a former board member of Icann has attacked the plans as "obscene". He argues in his blog that Icann should be focusing on "socially positive domain name" proposals rather than helping pornographers make money. "Is this progress? Is this a contribution to human values? Isn't the internet already enough of a sewer and a home for the worst that humanity has to offer? "Do we have to honour that kind of depravity with an official home? Why should .xxx get precedence over schools, churches, civic groups, aboriginal communities, labour organisations, and artistic groups?," he said. Auerbach argues that many social groups have been campaigning for their own top level domain names, despite the internet being able to accommodate many more internet addresses. He wrote: "Icann's policy on TLDs [top level domains] is bankrupt. The internet can support millions of top level domains. So even an extremely conservative approach that granted one TLD per week -- 52 new TLDs per year -- wouldn't even begin to bother domain name technology for about 20,000 years. If Icann were to allow this, then perhaps we could then make room for a .xxx." Adult-orientated sites, which are part of a $12bn online pornographic industry, with .xxx domains could come into effect by December, according to a spokesperson at Icann. Icann recently approved internet addresses ending in ".jobs" and ".travel" and is in talks to develop nine other domains including .cat, .post and .mobi, and four additional proposed sponsored top-level domains, .asia, .mail, .TEL-Pulver, & .TEL-Telnic. If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the Forum. ICANN Domain Names .XXX Risque Business Author: Steve Sabludowsky | 6/3/2005
The porn sites are not going to move. They’ve spent a tremendous amount of money to build their brand and audience and without compulsory action, they will stay put.
If anything, some Internet domain name registrars will make some money on the purchase of the XXX names in the event of government regulation and forcing them to move into that space. Only a minority of sites will buy the XXX top-level domain names that will be offered and that is only because they are new to the business.
Dot Com is still king, even in a land of divided monarchies.
Also, any United States effort to corral the porn sites to compel them to use a .xxx name will only force more Internet sites to find safe harbors in the International waters.
The entire idea of these sites undergoing self-regulation for the privilege of the .xxx designation makes as much sense as the internet giving up the web. It’s not going to happen. What will be he punishment for stepping out of bounds? A brand-spanking new .xxxx designation perhaps? New Porn Domain to be "Red light district" on the web Porn sites will shortly have the chance to get their own .xxx Internet domain and advertise their "service" clearly. Unfortunately, this will not be compulsory and will not stop the majority of the existing sex sites from operating on the usual areas of the internet. The purpose of the new domain is to make it easier to apply filters to software that can protect children from viewing this material. But unless this applies to all sites, it is unlikely to make a great deal of difference. Even if some law was introduced to place all porn sites on one domain, it would still not stop the spam from arriving and trying to promote it. Whilst you could block any emails from a .xxx domain, most spammers send emails from easy to get email addresses, from the likes of hotmail, yahoo and many others. In principal the idea is good, but in practice it won't work. There are many other ways in which spam and sex sites can be controlled much better, but this will require a lot more work and effort. Unfortunately, until there is some real "authority" that can monitor the web and enforce certain conditions, very little is going to change. For those that do enter the .xxx zone in the future, it would be wise to increase your computers security before facing the millions of pop-ups, trojans and viruses that you are likely to find. Not to mention all the credit card scams and increased spam (from giving out your email address). And this is before you get to the porn itself and discover that the "free" sex advertised isn't really free at all. But then, did you really think it would be? 6/3/2005
FRC Opposes '.xxx' Internet Domain Name "Pornographers will go to the '.xxx' domain, but they won't leave the '.com' domain" The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently announced a plan to create a ".xxx" domain address to house pornographic websites. Patrick Trueman, FRC's senior legal counsel and former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, released the following statement expressing strong opposition to ICANN's plan: "The new domain would do more harm than good. The '.com' domain has been a cash cow for the porn industry and pornographers will not give it up and remove themselves to the '.xxx' domain. Instead, they will populate the '.xxx' domain and perhaps double the number of porn sites available on the Web. "The '.xxx' domain also cloaks the porn industry with legitimacy. The industry will have a place at the table in developing and maintaining their new property. "Creating a virtual red light district may also discourage law enforcement from bringing obscenity cases on the notion that the problem is solved." Patrick Trueman is the author of a newly released FRC pamphlet - "Dealing with Pornography: A Practical Guide For Protecting Your Family and Your Community." The pamphlet explains actions that the average citizen can take to fight porn in stores, on the internet, and on television. A download of the pamphlet can be found at http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=BC05C01 |
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