The answer is no.
In a resolution that should be posted on its site today, ICANN resolved to send the matter back to the Governmental Advisory Committee for its opinion on the contract based ona few points that will be detailed in the resolution.
According to AVN, one of the points well may include:
A review of “the Wellington Communiqué of March 26, 2006, the GAC identified a number of concerns about the application and the concept as a whole, ending its comment on the subject with the statement, “Nevertheless without prejudice to the above, several members of the GAC are emphatically opposed from a public policy perspective to the introduction of a .xxx sTLD.”
According to the resolution, GAC consultation must be completed before the Colombia ICANN meeting which is going to be held on December 5th-10th.
Stuart Lawley CEO of the ICM Registry had this to say in reaction to the ICANN’s board action:
“”We understand that ICANN wants to cross all of its t’s and dot its i’s by reaching out to the GAC. We welcome the Board’s resolve to move forward expeditiously, and continue to look forward to a first quarter launch”””
So it looks like one of the top topics for the next ICANN meeting will be the same as the last meeting, .XXX
As with television, PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are not the ONLY players.
FOX now competes with ABC, NBC and CBS and cable may not have what broadcast TV has.
The United Nations and the ITU manage telecom markets but not the .USA free open and competitive market.
Eventually, U.S. citizens may see that competing Internet technology is a good thing.
Jim,
Honestly, you are WAY too smart for all of us. I think you’re better off moving along to some other blog where smarter folks will actually appreciate your comments.
Now, going back to .XXX, the issue is simple: ICANN knows that .XXX will cause huge public outcry. Possibly enough to cause governments to step in and re-think it’s entire structure. Therefore, they are simply (and wisely) sitting on it so that it coincides with the approval of the new TLD application process. That way the public won’t look at .XXX on it’s own merits (or lack thereof), but rather as part of a larger process in which TLD’s are being liberalized.
It’s tough to argue against .XXX in the context of an unlimited number of TLDs.
Thanks a bunch!
“It’s tough to argue against .XXX in the context of an unlimited number of TLDs. ”
=====
With the new DNS, the “trending TLDs” are selected via computers not humans.
The “ICANN Process” is out-dated, 1980s or earlier.
The stalling by ICANN is no surprise. You have people banking 5 times a normal salary in their off-shore companies. They are laughing all the way to the bank.
They have no need to risk their cash cows or gold mines.
P.S. It is somewhat ironic that none of the ICANN insiders, would be banking millions of dollars if it was not for .XXX putting the pressure on in 1995 to 1998.
#ICANN see payments to Argo Pacific $611,000 and $797,000 the joint venture of Ira Magaziner and Paul Twomey – Payments made for ??mystery??
#ICANN see the Clintons & Ira Magaziner may continue to run the .NET show
First of all, the adult industry is opposed to the whole idea of a .xxx tld. Adult webmasters have been fighting it since the beginning. The whole time the ICM Registry has been claiming that it has the support of the adult industry but time and time again it as failed to produce any proof of this. The analysis of ICANN’s latest public comment period (http://forum.icann.org/lists/xxx-revised-icm-agreement/msg00723.html)clearly shows that 448 of the 455 comments in favour of .xxx were “webform/standard form submissions”. Meaning: 448 of 455 pro-xxx mails were sent by the ICM from their own servers. The fact is that adult webmasters don’t want the .xxx tld and the ICM registry is willing to do anything to hide this fact.
Secondly, adult content can be considered to be “controversial”. The ICM registry and Stuart Lawly have been promoting the .xxx tld as “an effective way to filter out inappropriate content”. Using the .xxx tld to filter out adult content can only be effective if the use of a .xxx domain is mandatory for sites with adult content.
The fact that the ICM Registry itself is willing to label the content offered by its customers (adult webmasters) as ‘inappropriate’ and the fact that the ICM Registry stands to make a lot of money of of the .xxx registration fees ($60 per domain per year), shows that the ICM Registry has a clear incentive (and most likely even the intentions) to lobby for legislation that would make the use of a .xxx domain mandatory for adult content. Legislation like that has already been introduced several times in the United States over the last 4 years.
Making the use of a .xxx domain mandatory for adult content would not only cause financial harm to the majority of adult webmasters (small business owners) and hurt the economy. It would also endanger the internet as we know it.
By creating a special section of the internet for “controversial” content, one opens the gates for all kinds of enforced labeling and censorship.
It creates a host of practical problems: Who will determine what constitutes “adult content”? What about adult sites using a .com domain? How do you force them away from their .com domain? Do you create a special agency to patrol the web and look for adult content on sites suing a .com domain? Who will pay for that agency? Will it raise the cost of other tld’s such as .com, .net etc? Who will compensate the owners of .com, .net etc domains that are currently being used for adult websites?
ICANN HAS SHOWN REMARKABLE …”STAMINA”
And will not allow the pressures of a self serving entity .XXX
who has unduly tried to bully and goat them for the last five years
sway and make a bad decision that will cause international …
DISGRACE for the ICANN body.
“We invite you to join us for NANOG51 at the Hotel InterContinental Miami, January 30 to February 2, 2011. Escape the snow and cold for some networking near the beach in Miami. NANOG meetings offer a great opportunity to freshen up your skills, learn advanced networking techniques and discover new network applications. “
sex! 🙂
Let’s not forget, if a special tld is created for one type of content that could be seen as “controversial”, what is to stop people from demanding special tld’s for other types of content they find controversial or inappropriate? Some people find certain religious points of view offensive. Some people find the whole idea of ‘evolution’ offensive. Some people find computer games inappropriate. …. If we allow the creation of a .xxx tld and everything that comes with it (the possibility of a forced ghettoization of adult content), than we have to be aware of the fact that things won’t end there.
The creation of for example the .travel tld didn’t pose the same risks as the possible introduction of the .xxx tld. No one ever wanted to make the use of a .travel domain mandatory for travel agencies. Travel agencies are allowed to use .com, .net or other domains. The .xxx tld is something totally different. From its conception, both the ICM and politicians have been promoting the idea of forcing it on adult webmasters as a way to restrict the accessability of adult content on the internet.
Approving the .xxx tld will come with an enormous cost in regards to the freedom of speech, free enterprise and the cost of ‘running the internet infrastructure’.
What about .X ?
and .SEX ?
[ Top 2,048 DLDs in the .COM Realm ]
10514 INC
9264 ONLINE
7288 NET
6472 USA
4481 GROUP
4101 WEB
3891 TECH
3077 UK
2762 DESIGN
2570 SYSTEMS
2542 IT
2415 US
2378 SOLUTIONS
2322 LINE
2209 LAW
2171 CONSULTING
2161 INFO
2033 SERVICES
2027 WORLD
1966 SOFTWARE
1940 INTERNATIONAL
1932 INTL
1880 CORP
1874 CO
1803 SHOP
1795 FRANCE
1720 HOMES
1671 S
1638 ART
1603 TV
1587 TRAVEL
1555 MAIL
1534 EUROPE
1529 DIRECT
1491 MEDIA
1487 MALL
1431 E
1419 LTD
1417 ASSOCIATES
1411 1
1361 SERVICE
1342 2000
1339 Z
1301 NETWORK
1289 NEWS
1269 INT
1232 SA
1218 ENTERPRISES
1217 CENTER
1216 CLUB
1202 MARKETING
1177 REALTY
1161 MUSIC
1149 STORE
1144 INSURANCE
1108 I
1101 COM
1083 PRODUCTS
1070 REALESTATE
1068 JP
1045 GMBH
1041 X <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
1022 SALES
1018 PLUS
1000 LINK
999 AMERICA
995 INDIA
993 ONE
981 HOME
979 SEX <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Ok… so we really need it ?
Registration is now open for the 51st Meeting of the North American
Network Operators’ Group. NANOG 51 will be held January 30 through
February 2, 2011, at the InterContinental Miami on Biscayne Bay. The
meeting will be hosted by Terremark.
This will be an important warm-up for the ICANN meeting(s) in the .USA
“XXX” can have many meanings. inside and outside of the world of computing. it has some important uses in programming for example. but when i see “XXX” code comments my mind does not go to sex.
sites using a .xxx tld could be a totally non-sex oriented. the tld does not dictate what people do with it. just look at what people have done with the cctlds. the character of the tld essentially becomes what people do with it. whatever gets the best traffic wins. you might say “highest, best use” is that which earns the best traffic. preconceived intent or meaning of a tld is irrelevant.
is .com really strictly commercial? is .org strictly non-commercial? etc. (even within a resticted tld like .edu there are plenty of sites in that tld that i would hardly classify as true universities) i predict that even restricted tlds like .us and .gov will eventually loosen up. because everyone wants _traffic_. and if an unrestricted tld like .com gets more, then that’s what people register, even the people who have domains in the restricted tld’s.
seems to me a lot of assumptions being made about .xxx. it’s like when the ICANN groups think that they can use some variation of string recognition to solve trademark issues. strings are not always intentional. people make mistakes when typing. and strings have no meaning by themselves. people determine the meaning(s). and who can predict what meanings people will give them? it’s all extremely murky.
i guess i really don’t get the .xxx whole thing.
play on.
It doesn’t matter what you or I think personally about .XXX, what matters is the law and the laws in 2003 that were set forth by ICAAN.
All the legal requirements were met and in compliance and they were even setting up the .XXX TLD before George Bush’s goons interfered.
.XXX came before the .GTLD’s and falls under the original ICAAN rules. The U.S. Government should not have total and absolute power over the internet… or this ruling.
This stalling has gone on long enough. It is time for .XXX to finally move ahead as it should have in 2003.