According to AVN.com, The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) submitted a letter to ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) yesterday over the proposed approval of .XXX saying that:
“The proposed .XXX extension poses a threat not only to the adult entertainment community, but also to the stability and security of the internet as a whole,”
The letter went on to raise these points (pdf):
• ICANN’s lack of authority to oversee content-based regulation, and its inability to approve any other entity to oversee content-based regulation, in regards to establishing a domain category.
• Lack of support for the proposed .XXX TLD from the “sponsor” community, which is necessary for approval.
• Use of fees from .XXX domain registrations to fund proposed regulatory board in violation of free speech and free association rights.
• Inconsistencies in documentation provided by domain registrar ICM and its president, Stuart Lawley, in their ongoing campaign for approval of .XXX.
• Lack of transparency by ICM during the approval process, overall.
The FSC also stated that GAC has previously expressed its disapproval of the .XXX domain, the documentation of which also is included in the letter.
The ICM registry fired back in a statement made to thedomains.com:
“The FSC – as important as its views on free expression are – does not represent global providers of online adult entertainment.”
“Moreover, FSC’s demand that ICM “out” its supporters rings hollow.
“On privacy grounds, FSC own membership is not public.”
“It is unfortunate, indeed, that an organization dedicated to defending free expression rights chooses to ignore First Amendment history and employ a favorite tactic of those opponents of civil rights in the 1950’s and 1960s that required countless individuals and organizations to “name names” of those who could then be subject to reprisals.”
The bottom line is that the FSC’s comments simply restate the arguments they have made in the past.”
“Their claims were inaccurate, unsupportable, untimely, and irrelevant when first made, and remain so today.”
The GAC report is due and this issue should be voted on at the ICANN December meeting
ICANN MUST DENY .XXX
ICANN AS INTERNET OVERSEER …
can not in any good conscience approve the promotion
of pornography and the increase of human exploitation
of millions of innocent victims forced to become a product
by this gTLD Application for organized mainstream Global Slavery.
ICANN : Don’t give the WORLD another reason to say …
AMERICA IS CORRUPT and DECADENT.
While I am in disfavor of .XXX, I am not sure I follow the logic of the Free Speech Coalition?
Seems almost contradictory to what they stand for.
My main qualm with .XXX is I don’t want to, (and neither should I have to) register the .XXX equivalent of .Com adult names I already own just to protect my brand. And I am not buying the argument that the .XXX will give you priority to register names you already own. It’s just a way to scam and coerce (strong arm) fleece money from those who have gone through great lengths to create brands around certain names. Sorry not buying it.
As for “the promotion of pornography and the increase of human exploitation” That is a pretty unfounded and deluded way of thinking and people that make statements like that scare me way more than would be human traffickers.
ICANN has now stalled long enough they will likely want to put .XXX back thru their brand new FAG “process”.
Before .XXX goes thru the FAG Process, the .NET and .ORG will likely be tested.
.COM is about the only TLD that is “safe” (i.e. special) and immune from the FAG.
@ Mean Dean
scare me way more than would be human traffickers.
———————————–
Well maybe you would be more scared if you were the one getting
your little BUTT pounded thru threat of violence in one of your
sweet darling movies.
It seem’s like the reason your are AGAINST .XXX is to
protect your own little pocket on the smut that you now pedal,
Mr Family Man.
And …
The Free Speech Coalition is involved in many Major Legal
projects that you could not comprehend compared to your selfish
little concern of protecting your “Street Corner Smut” Brand.
I was in Brussels and the FSC spokesman who flew thousands of miles from Cal had his 3 minutes to speak on this issues and could barely put a sentence together.
His statement was off point, not compelling in the least and made little sense.
I lost all respect for that organization then and there.
Moreover at the ICANN meeting when the discussion of .xxx came up there were just a few, and very few comments and some were in support.
The discussion on .xxx took less than 20 minutes because of the lack of people who wanted to comment on the issue.
The next topic up for discussion was compensation for the chair of the ICANN committee.
That topic drew 50 minutes of comments more than 2x the time that people wanted to speak about .xxx
So after 5 serious years and lets not forget the $5+ million dollar independent review, I think this is a dead horse.
ICANN needs to approve the extension and move on the next 500.
Landon,
shallow people make reprehensible decisions because they don’t understand themselves, human nature or they are too burdened by guilt and think that everyone should be subjected to their false morality. That is just such an outworn, outdated way of thinking, you need to layoff the Fox News for a while and think for yourself and come to your own conclusions.
It’s guilt and censorship that drives priests to become pedophiles.
“ICANN needs to approve the extension and move on the next 500.”
===
OK, fast-forward, imagine ICANN approves .XXX and puts one of their cash cows .ORG at risk. [Note: ICANN is a .ORG]
Do you think Obama and THE Clintons will approve .XXX for the IANA Root Server TLD broadcast system ? [Partly operated by the U.S. Government]
With the {IANA Contract} coming up for Re-bid, do you think ICANN is going to risk that on .XXX ?
As the “next round” starts, what happens if 6 or 8 .XXX Applicants appear ?
Will the current .JOBS negotiations get caught in the same window ?
What happens if new technology renders many of the past options moot ?
Drop it already, why .xxx keep on spending fees, drop it.
“1.5.2 Fees Required in Some Cases
Applicants may be required to pay additional fees in certain cases where specialized process steps are applicable. Those possible additional fees include:
• Registry Services Review Fee – …The fee for a three- member RSTEP review team is anticipated to be USD 50,000. In some cases, fivemember
panels might be required…
• Dispute Resolution Filing Fee – This amount must accompany any filing …ICANN estimates that non-refundable filing fees could range from approximately USD 1,000 to USD 5,000 (or more) per party per proceeding. …
• Advance Payment of Costs – In the event of a formal objection, this amount is payable directly …ICANN estimates that adjudication fees for a proceeding involving a fixed amount could range from USD 2,000 to USD 8,000 (or more) per proceeding. ICANN further estimates that an hourly rate based proceeding with a one-member panel could range from USD 32,000 to USD 56,000 (or more) and with a three-member panel it could range from USD 70,000 to USD 122,000 (or more). …
• Community Priority Evaluation Fee – In the event that the applicant participates in a community priority evaluation, this fee is payable as a deposit in an amount to cover the cost of the panel’s review of that application (currently estimated at USD 10,000). …This list does not include fees (annual registry fees) that will be payable to ICANN following execution of a registry agreement.
Jim
This is from the guide book for the new gTLD’s, yes?
If so that doesn’t apply to .xxx, applied under the old rules
@MHB
ICM/Afilias applied for .XXX “under the old rules” as Sponsored TLD
New .XXX Applicants will likely be ready to apply under the new gTLD rules
People interested in a specific .XXX domain are already Staging those and
Trademarking them via Market Trials.
Some of the major brands in Adult Content have *-XXX.com names already.
ICANN does not seem to be chomping at the bit to be the .XXX Czar
@Dean
Well said.
@MHB
Sponsored TLDs were a very very bad idea from the Stuart Lynn, Vinton Cerf, Esther Dyson days of ICANN. They carry a lot of baggage. People warned about
that. People did not listen.
…
The New ICANN Management would likely want to put “Sponsored TLDs” into
the history books. Look at the .JOBS mess. Who pays for all of the overhead ?
…
IF ICM/Afilias continue to press forward with their Sponsored .XXX TLD
Application, one solution would be to use the DNS Class Field. You can Google
for ‘DNS Class Hesiod’.
…
New gTLDs do not have the Sponsored Artificial Overhead. They are simply ASCII Strings, servers, etc. ICM/Afilias may not be interested in a generic .XXX
[By the way, .XXX on moonshine jugs was an indication that the product had
been thru the still 3 times, one X per pass.]
Jim
again don’t understand you however all I’m saying is you can’t impose the new guide book on the new gTLD’s on an extension that applied under a whole different set of rules years before the 1st guide book was even issued
@MHB
How do you propose to handle the .ORG Re-Bid ?…with the “New guide book”
“Sponsored” was artificial baggage, inserted by Regulation.Happy.Control.Freaks.
When “Sponsored” is removed, ICANN exits the SUBJECTIVE realm of telling
people what an ASCII string means.
.TPT for some means Trailer Park Trash
Jim
.org has nothing to do with the new gTLD guidebook
“.org has nothing to do with the new gTLD guidebook”
===
Is .ORG a generic TLD?
Is .ORG a Sponsored TLD?…for people sponsoring an ORGy ?
Why are so many .XXX domains in the Afilias’ .ORG ?
Should existing .ORG owners be awarded a companion .XXX domain FREE ?
“.org has nothing to do with the new gTLD guidebook”
===
Is .ORG a generic TLD? gTLD (note the g)
IF yes, then .ORG would be RE-Bid under the terms of the gTLD guidebook.
Are you assuming TLDs are never RE-Bid ? Re-Negotiated ?
@David Castello, thank you for your comment.
@Landon White, I apologize if come off as an insensitive jerk.
@Jim Fleming and MHB, I love the way you guys banter back and forth, I have no clue what you guy’s are talking about, but makes for fascinating reading.
@Dean
There is also a School of Thought that would argue that ICANN can now be dissolved.
When ICANN was created, it was only for a short time. It was for a very limited purpose.
ICANN has morphed into a growing taxing organism.
There will be more FREE solutions coming that will allow people to walk away.
FREE sells very well to the widest audiences.
I look forwards to the new .xxx extension, the internet is changing worldwide , idn’s , gtld’s ………time to move on i say
At the XBIZ Hollywood Forum in February 2007, Stuart Lawley stated that he would not use domain registration (“pre-reservation”) as proof of support for .XXX. Lawley has since gone back on his statement, in ICM’s latest attempt to gain approval for it. Cheers to Free Speech Coalition for digging up the video: