ICM Registry’s top-level domain .XXX proposal is going to arbitration in Washington in late September.
ICM Registry is asking for a three-judge panel to rule in favor of its application to serve as .XXX registry operator” because it met criteria set forth in a December 2003 request for proposal”.
ICM Registry claims in more than a 1,000 pages of documents that ICANN acted inconsistently with its own articles of incorporation and bylaws in rejecting its application.
ICM has been chasing the .xxx for years and claims to have spent over $3 million just in legal fees.
ICM Registryapplication for the .XXX extension was rejected by ICANN for a third time in March 2007.
ICM Registry briefs submitted in late January contend that ICANN’s decision in rejecting the .XXX extension were arbitrary.
The .xxx extension, was actually approved at one point by ICANN, which then withdrew their approval after the U.S. Commerce Department, objected to it.
ICM has always contended that there was huge support for the extension in the adult industry, but in fact most adult operators, are against the idea, as it will certainly be used to block sites. Moreover the ICM proposal gives no protection to existing adult sites to get their equivalent .xxx domain if they own the .com.
You can understand why the owner of porn.com or sex.com wouldn’t be thrilled over the prospect of having a porn.xxx or sex.xxx, which it would not own, having shelled out in excess of $10 Million for the .com’s.
However ICM understands that under ICANN new gTLD proposal, there maybe multiple applicants for a .xxx or .sex extension and that such extension may come down to a bidding war and they are no doubt, is trying to get a positive ruling to head that scenario off.
I honestly don’t know what ICANN has against the extension and if they’re going to kill it on moral grounds, they certainly shouldn’t be stealing that $50k application fee each time. Of all the new extensions being talked about, this is one of the few which would have an obvious purpose and could do a lot of good if it got popular by making it easier to filter adult content.
Reece
That is the argument I made a few months ago.
If ICANN rejected the application on moral grounds before then they should make their intentions know right now, before the start accepting applications at $185K per.
Moreover if the extension was knocked out on moral grounds before it should be again as nothing has changed since the time they killed the proposal.
As a owner of a large number of adult domains, I’m strongly against the proposal.
I would think you are Michael, I mean is RedTube.com guaranteed .xxx, if so what happens to RedTube.com could Icann say No porn on anything but .xxx ? Is that legal ?
WTF
Under the .xxx proposal, the holder of a .com has no first right, or anyway to claim the .xxx equivalent.
Moreover the fee for the .xxx is 10X higher than for the .com
There is also no way for ICANN to mandate that all “adult” content move to .xxx.
Then you have the question of what is “adult”.
Sure we may agree penetration is adult, but is Maxim magazine pictures adult?
Topless?
g-string bikinis?
There is no way of enforcing a move of adult content to a .xxx extension and the US has passed several laws trying to restrict or regulate adult content on the net and all have such laws have been stricken down by federal courts.
So if you can’t legally mandate or practically enforce a move of adult material to .xxx, what is the purpose if it?
I agree with you 100% I never thought .xxx was great if it could not relegate all adult to that extension. I agree penetration, watersports,ejaculation is adult, but some would see AmIhot as adult. So IMO its just a money grab for ICM. Again IMO
Kind of off topic Michael, I wanted to have your opinion on FashionModels.biz I know you own the .com, I am not a fan of .biz but figured it dropped and regged in all gtlds and many cctld. Where do you see the value in .biz. I was thinking $500 to $1000. Thank you
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I’d LOVE to see .xxx be approved for hard-core porn sites. I’m not talking about erotica–I’m talking about the nasty crap that pops up in my email (and is immediately deleted without being opened).
That way, I can set my preferences to block all .xxx sites on my emails, forums, blog sites, etc.
I’m really not interested in seeing some blonde wench giving a blow job to some john posted on my poetry site by p0rn0 spammers.
If people really like that crap, then .xxx should be set aside for that purpose AND for people who seek it.
For those who own sex dot com and porn dot com, well, too bad. You deal in slime, so I can’t get too worked up over your bottom line. You’ll just have to stand in line behind the opportunists who file bogus TMs at every TLD sunrise. You may even have to pay another $10 million.
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MS.
I understand that the desire to keep porn away from kids and those who don’t want it. the problem is always the same, who decides what is “hardcore porn sites” and which are not?
There are certain places in the US where Playboy is not allowed.
Its a big world and how do you regulate it?
Who is going to make sex.com shut down?
Or blowjobs.com shut down?
No one
Its one of those ideas like peace on earth, we are all in favor of, but no way of making it happen.
XXX is a great idea and is a natural evolution in the growth of the internet. The people opposed the most to xxx are the ones masturbating secretly the most to it. Everyone needs to take a chill pill and grow up. The religious right should be ashamed of themselves. I can still see Jerry Falwell with tears streaming down his eyes after he got caught with a hooker. The .com sex tld’s should be left alone to operate as they please. Their is no eminent domain. Think of all the opposition to smoking in bars being banned. Now, if I went into a bar or restaurant and someone was smoking it would be disgusting. The .sex com existing operators will moan and groan and then eventually accept that they can buy a few .xxx’s or just keep what they have- or do both. But sex sites will ultimately WANT and DEMAND to be catalogued so they can be found easily and so that they can be part of the .xxx community, because it makes $en$e for them to be.
correction- it was Jimmy Swaggart with the Visine laden tears for Jesus. I spoke with a trusted source and he said it will never be approved. It is a lot easier to deny the application yet once again than to get involved with the backlash, media uproar and “monitoring” of the web. Lawsuits will ultimately spring up and the arbitrators are in CYA mode. It is unfortunate that the U.S. Government controls the web and these decisions. There is a difference between doing the right thing and doing the safe thing. If I were Stuart Lawley, I would already be preparing for the next lawsuit, which will be extreme bias and prejudice towards .xxx. I would be attacking the future gTLD’s and block them from being approved unless .xxx is allowed under the exact same standards.
Umm. it is more fun alone.
Interesting. it is more fun alone.