.XXX TLD

Official FSC Position on .XXX

In 2004, after several membership and Board meetings, the Board of Directors of The Free Speech Coalition voted to formally oppose the creation of an adult TLD, a position it maintains to this day. The Free Speech Coalition opposes .XXX because:

• .XXX Will Not Create a Framework to Protect Children – Even its most enthusiastic supporters acknowledge that a voluntary .XXX will not provide an effective mechanism for keeping adult content away from minors.

• There Is No Compelling Need For .XXX – Other than financial benefit to ICM Registry and its investors, there is no compelling need or business model that necessitates the creation of .XXX.

• .XXX Will Lead To The “Ghettoization” of Protected Speech – By its very existence, .XXX will segregate content-based speech and create a framework that could lead easily to government or private sector censorship, establishing an international precedent by which other content-based speech could be similarly segregated and regulated.

• .XXX Will be Regulated, Not Self-Regulated – A supporting organization, IFFOR, will set all policies that .XXX domain holders will be required to obey. A majority of IFFOR Board of Directors will come from outside the industry, thus creating a regulatory, rather than self-regulatory, framework.

• .XXX Does Not Have The Support of the Adult Industry – Contrary to statements made by ICM Registry and others, the overwhelming majority of adult entertainment companies do not support the creation of .XXX.

• .KIDS Would Provide a Far More Effective Solution – Instead of herding protected speech into a “virtual ghetto,” a content-positive .KIDS TLD should be created where children can find child-friendly websites, making it far easier for parents to filter .KIDS in than it will be for them to filter adult content out!

• Foreign Governments Oppose .XXX – An increasing number of foreign governments have voiced their opposition to .XXX. In fact, rather than endorsing .XXX, the European Union recently proposed the creation of a .kids top-level domain.

• Repressive Governments Will Engage in State-Sponsored Filtering: Many governments currently restrict the types of websites available to their citizens by utilizing filtering technologies. .XXX will provide these governments with yet another, more effective tool to control what their citizens can access, in effect, censoring speech for an entire country.

There were two main differences between the 2000 and 2004 applications submitted to ICANN by ICM Registry. First, the 2004 application, unlike the 2000 version, was for a sponsored top-level domain, which required ICM Registry establish significant support within the industry for the creation of .XXX. Second, unlike 2000, the 2004 application proposed a supporting non-profit organization, The International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR), which would be responsible for setting all policies for .XXX domains, and administered by a seven-member Board of Directors comprised of people from within and without the adult industry. According to an IFFOR organizational chart, one seat would be reserved for a representative from the adult industry; the rest would be reserved for representatives of various stakeholder groups.

A contract codifying the agreement between ICANN and ICM Registry was prepared, and was to be signed by both parties in mid-August, 2005. According to a timetable contained in the contract, .XXX domains would be available for registration six months from the signing of the contract, or February 2006. The signing of the contract did not take place.

On August 11, 2005, Michael D. Gallagher, Assistant Secretary for the Commerce Department, wrote a letter to Dr. Vinton Cerf of ICANN, informing him that Commerce had received 6000 letter and emails from people objecting to .XXX, mostly the result of Christian conservative letter-writing campaigns. He urged the Board to “ensure that the concerns of all members of the Internet community on this issue have been adequately heard and resolved,” and suggested that additional time be allocated so that concerns could be voiced and addressed.

On August 12, 2005, Mohd Sharil Tarmizi, the chairman of ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee (GAC), a supporting group whose key role is to provide advice to ICANN on issues of public policy, sent a letter to the ICANN Board of Directors in which he stated that “…there remains a strong sense of discomfort in the GAC about the TLD, notwithstanding the explanations to date,” and suggested that final approval be delayed until “additional governmental and public policy concerns” could be addressed.

On August 15, Stuart Lawley of ICM Registry wrote a letter to Dr. Paul Twomey, CEO of ICANN, in which he acknowledge the concerns expressed by Gallagher and Tarmizi, and agreed to a one month extension until the September 15 Board meeting.

On August 16, 2005, ICANN deferred a decision on .XXX to its September 15 meeting.

On August 30, 2005, Free Speech Coalition Executive Director, Michelle L. Freridge, wrote a letter to ICANN Board Chair Vinton Cerf, reiterating FSC's objection to .XXX and the ICM Registry application in particular. Though Dr. Cerf acknowledged receipt of the communication and promised to post it to the ICANN Correspondence page right away, it was in fact not posted there until sometime in March of 2006.

A special meetingof the ICANN Board September 15, 2005, resulted in the decision to enter into a review of the .XXX agreement. That decision was made, according to a preliminary report of the meeting, for several reasons, including the Board's "concerns regarding issues relating to the compliance with the proposed .XXX Registry Agreement (including possible proposals for codes of conduct and ongoing obligations regarding potential changes in ownership.)" The Board votes to reconsider the .XXX application at the December 4 Board Meeting in Vancouver.

On September 16, 2005, Peter Zangle, Deputy Executive Director of the European Commission, wrote a letter to ICANN Board Chair Vinton Cerf outlining several problems the EU had with the decision to move forward with the ICM application, specifically mentioning certain "public policy issues" as well as the apparently  unprecedented decision by the Board to move forward with the application before the publication of the .XXX appllication evalutation report. He asked ICANN to reconsider the deicision until GAC had been given an opportunity to review and comment on the report.

On November 23, 2005, Sweden expressed its concern regarding the .XXX application in a letter to Dr. Twomy, who replied the same day.

On November 28, 2005, ICANN posted the Evaluation Reports and supporting documentation for all the sTLD under consideration, including the .XXX TLD, which gained approval from the independent evaluators regarding the Technical and Business/Financial criteria, but not was not approved with respect to the Sponsorship and Other Issues criteria. The evaluators for that area proposed that ICANN "not consider" the application further.

A final decision on .XXX was postponed once again at the December 2005 Vancouver Meeting, as reflected in the GAC Communique from that meeting, "until such time as the GAC has been able to review the Evaluation Report and the additional information requested from ICANN." The "additional information" was apparently requested during meetings between GAC and the ICANN Board Tuesday, November 29, 2005.

On February 11, 2006, Dr. Twomey responded to GAC's .XXX concerns in a letter outlining ICANN's response to .XXX concerns over the past several months, and states no deadline by which GAC must respond.

The next few months saw the .XXX application "punted" from one meeting to the next, as GAC continued to assess the Evaluation Reports, and letters from various governments, including the European Union and the U.S. Commerce Department, and adult entertainment companies, expressed either specific concerns or outright opposition to .XXX.

FightthedotXXX.com

www.fightthedotxxx.com

Adult-Related TLDs Considered Dangerous

http://www.circleid.com/article/530_0_1_0_C/

Technology Liberation Front

http://www.techliberation.com/archives/2005_08.php

Family Research Council opposes .XXX domain (June 3, 2005)

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PR05F01

Letter from Larry Flynt Opposing .XXX TLD.