The US Department of Commerce is accused of exerting political influence to have the .xxx plan rejected
Rejection of porn domain sparks legal battle
/v3-uk/news/1942779/rejection-porn-domain-sparks-legal-battle
21 May 2006, Clement James , V3
The recent rejection of a dedicated .xxx domain for porn sites has prompted the company behind the plan, ICM Registry, to launch a legal attack against the US Department of Commerce (DoC).
ICM claims that the DoC intervened in Icann's consideration of the .xxx domain proposal and exerted political influence to have the plan rejected.
The lawsuit has been filed under a Freedom of Information Act request in order to gain access to information being withheld by the DoC.
It is well known that conservative groups in the US lobbied hard for the DoC to block the new domain.
But the argument has now blown up into more than a fight for a porn domain, and into an investigation into how much power the US government exerts over control of the internet.
ICM claims that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has provided no explanation of the statutory basis and reasons for redacting and withholding documents relating to the consideration of the proposal.
Furthermore, the company asserts that records show that, while the DoC lacked any official role in approving new domain names, it nevertheless decided to intervene in the Icann process.
"Despite this contractual relationship between the DoC and Icann, the DoC does not have regulatory authority over Icann," said ICM.
"Icann was conceived as an independent organisation that is not under control of the US government nor any national government. It is intended to be free of administrative control and political influence."
© Incisive Media Investments Limited 2010, Published by Incisive Financial Publishing Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, are companies registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 04252091 & 04252093
Do you agree?
Easy to Filter Out
Absent in much discussion of this subject is the fact that an .xxx domain is much easier to filter out. This is a good thing. Of course all "adult" merchants would have to be forced to use .xxx or the filtering wouldn't work. This is a bad thing.
Posted by Jerome Lackner, 21 May 2006
nice develoment
but i would like to see how far this goes, in india more serioud issue are silenced by the politicians (media blackout) within a month.
Posted by techy, 21 May 2006
containment is good
I'm sure we need porn to be a regulated sector. All in one place it can be controlled much easier. It can both be blocked and found much faster.
www.google.xxx
www.yahoo.xxx
www.msn.xxx
www.slashdot.xxx
www.digg.xxx
The future! ROFL
Posted by gaby de wilde, 21 May 2006
Forcing porn sites to use .xxx
As another person already stated, having all porn sites in a single domain would make filtering porn simple, however, I have not seen anywhere that stated that all existing porn domains would be forced to migrate to the new one. If not forced to move to the new domain, then the only reason a porn site would have to even consider the new domain would be to have yet another domainname to exploit. The porn vendors don't want the new .xxx domain unless moving to it is voluntary because it would restrict them too much. The last thing they want is to make it easier for people to block their sites.
Posted by techdog, 22 May 2006
Advantages of "XXX" domain for porn sites.
It seems simple, (but obviously to complex for the small minds of the "Religious Right!").
If the "xxx domain" is OKed, it would be much easier for parents to have that domain blocked from their computers, so that their children cannot access the porn sites! Is'nt that what the "religious right" want? So what's their objection?
Posted by James Smith, 23 May 2006