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Porn group tries to delay .xxx bid
The Free Speech Coalition has asked ICANN to prove that the .xxx top-level domain application has the level of support that ICM Registry claims it has.
The FSC, which represents thousands of porn webmasters, has filed a request under ICANN’s Documentary Information Disclosure Policy for a list of the people who have already pre-registered .xxx domains, among other items.
The organization wants to prove that .xxx has no support among the adult community, and that most of ICM’s 179,000 pre-registrations are made by domainers or are defensive, made by pornographers who really don’t want .xxx.
FSC president Diane Duke wrote to ICANN general counsel John Jeffrey (pdf):
The adult entertainment community – the community which would be most impacted by the introduction of a .xxx sTLD – requires more information about the application in order to provide the appropriate level of feedback to the ICANN Board for it to make an informed decision.
The FSC also wants ICANN to add another 30 days to the current public comment period after the disclosure is made, to give it a chance to respond properly to the new data.
This would, of course, add further delay to the .xxx application.
The FSC also wants to know more about IFFOR, the International Foundation For Online Responsibility, the policy body that would oversee .xxx.
Specifically, the DIDP request covers the names of IFFOR’s board of directors, policy council members, business plans and financial projections.
ICM is opposed to the request and will be officially responding shortly. Its president, Stuart Lawley, told me the information the FSC has requested is known to ICANN, but that it’s confidential.
He also said that the issue of community support is already closed; ICANN made that decision five years ago, a decision that was reinforced earlier this year by an Independent Review Panel.
The issue of “community support” is certainly not closed, as the FSC could easily file a reconsideration request (and indeed, even an Independent Review).
Indeed, it would be ironic if opponents of .xxx defeated the application using Article IV of the ICANN Bylaws, employing the the same tactics ICM used to resuscitate their application.
I suspect the FSC would agree, and I think it probably intends to try what you suggest.
The GAC will likely kill it before things get that far, but we’ll know for sure in a few months.
[…] Registry CEO Stuart Lawley has lashed back at Free Speech Coalition for its latest attempt to delay or kill […]
[…] Porn group tries to delay .xxx bid […]
The ICM keeps repeating that “issue of community support is already closed”. It is NOT closed. There is opposition to their proposal on every adult webmaster forum. In Brussels ICANN itself stated that the ICM had to show it still had sufficient community support. The ICM never had any support in the adult industry. The majority of emails being sent to ICANN are from adult webmasters that don’t want the .xxx. The ICM knows this, that’s why they are emailing everyone who filed a (defensive) preregistration and they are trying to trick people into mailing a prewritten statement to ICANN.
http://forum.icann.org/lists/xxx-revised-icm-agreement/msg00092.html
Thanks for your comment Christiaan.
I think by “already closed” ICM means in the context of ICANN’s approval process. ICANN’s board voted in 2005 that the application had community support.
That’s ICM’s position. Whether it holds up to scrutiny or not is another question entirely.
[…] Registry CEO Stuart Lawley has lashed back at Free Speech Coalition for its latest attempt to delay or kill […]