ICANN says you can't to .xxx porn domain

Stan Beer
Saturday, 31 March 2007 03:39

Your IT - Home IT

Once again, Internet top level domains administrator, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has voted against an application to register a .XXX domain for adult sex sites. However, this time there has been no outcry from Europe accusing ICANN of being manipulated by the US Government.

Although the vote of the ICANN board 9 to 5 against .xxx registration was identical to a vote by the board last year, EU representatives have to date not accused the US Department of Commerce, to which ICANN reports until 2009, of interference as was the case previously. However, ICANN representatives in a pre-emptive action, moved quickly to quash suggestions of US Government interference.

Internet Protocol pioneer and current chairman of ICANN, Dr Vint Cerf, stated to journalists at a media conference in Portugal that the decision was not influenced by the US Government. Dr Cerf said he personally voted against the proposal.

Previously, ICM Registry, the US-based Internet domain name registrar that for six years had planned to register a .xxx domain for "adult" content had filed a Freedom of Information demand against the US Department of Commerce, claiming the US Government agency exerted political influence to have the creation of the domain quashed.

ICM Registry appeared to strong support from the EU, which made statements accusing the US Government of pressuring ICANN to vote against the proposal

However, there are many opponents against the creation of the domain besides the usual suspects such as the US Government and conservative religious and morals watchdogs. Many porn website operators are against the establishment of the .xxx domain because they fear it would be too easy to restrict access to sites in the domain.

ICANN takes the view that the creation of the domain will not prompt porn site operators to move their sites into the domain and that it will simply create a new porn site registrations business for domain name registrars.