ICANN+has+.xxx?+(Ailan)

 Overview
On March 18, 2011, after ten years of opposition, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the group that manages the Internet's top-level domains such as dot-com, dot-net and dot-org, officially approved dot-xxx domain names.

Sounds awesome, right? The novelty of the idea soon wears off, especially considering the reasons behind the ten-year battle; the number of critics heavily outnumber the pro-porn-ments. The company in charge of running the dirty sponsored top-level domain (sTLD), Florida-based ICM Registry, claims to have support from the adult industry itself as well as family groups; however, several porn groups, families, religious groups, and even the Obama administration have spoken out against the new domain. In fact, the only people who seem to be in favor of the new concept are those who are on ICANN and ICM's payroll, considering the fact that each domain comes at a costly $75 a pop per year. [[|1]]

Just because there is a now a specialized domain for pornography doesn't mean that porn sites will give up their dot-com spaces. Those high up in the porn world fear not only vulnerability to government censorship, but they believe that they will be forced to shell out thousands of dollars to buy multiple dot-xxx addresses “simply to protect their brands from cybersquatters.” Internet major player, kink.com, defensively pre-purchased their brand's domains in the dot-xxx realm to protect their brand. [[|1]]

ICANN board chairman, Peter Dengate Thrush, says that the sTLD will not necessarily increase the amount of porn on the Internet; it will just make it more accessible and more easily filtered. [[|2]] Despite these claims, CEO of Morality in Media, Patrick Trueman, believes that the new domain will only increase the amount of smut on the Internet. [[|4]] While on the topic of consumer interest – since porn industries seem unwilling to convert over to dot-xxx spaces, if porn-watchers think they can easily hide the porn that they watching at work by easily filtering out all dot-xxx domains, then they will be in for a slap on the wrist.

Commerce secretary, Lawrence Strickling, argues that dot-xxx will “open the door to more Internet blocking by governments to undermine the stability and security of the Internet.” According to the Washington Post, ICM claims to “use some of the registration fees for an affiliated foundation to promote free speech” [[|2]] and to promote “responsible business practices,” [[|3]] but slews of critics don't see this happening. Those opposed to the new domain argue that it will only encourage oppressive regimes to block sites donning the dot-xxx surname. For example, the government of Saudi Arabia, which already bans pornography, says, “This would actually make our life much easier... it's much easier to block it.” [[|2]]

Pretty much, ICANN and ICM are having a sex party on the Internet to which no one wants to or is going to show up. [[|3]] However, if ICANN had made dot-xxx spaces official when it was proposed ten years ago and if every porn site actually moved over to the new spaces, then maybe Beaver College would have had one less reason to change their name (click [|here] if you don't know about Beaver College).

[1] http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/xxx-domain-approved-now-begins-the-era-of-meaningless-tlds/16385 [2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/coming-soon-online-dot-xxx/2011/03/16/ABV1AAr_story.html [3] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/technology/26domain.html?_r=3&src=busln [4] http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/8817816508.html

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