I didnt pay much attention to this issue so I dont know what the counter-arguments are, but I do think it is a good idea to put porn in a XXX domain. Pornographic commerce isnt a very big free speech issue for me, and I would feel better about porn being in one place on the Internet not everywhere.
This article continues previous threads about using the Internet for commercial purposes, something it wasnt designed for, as well as the issue of who should control the Internet and how long the rest of the world will be content with the USA calling the shots.
Suffice it to say, I dont think Jim Dobson should be calling the shots for anything at all. The idea that porn isn't already legitimately online is ridiculous to say the least. The idea that Jim Dobson and others like him run our country is equally disturbing.
Plan for Adult Area Sparks a Fight On Control of Web
Dot-XXX Proposal Focuses Global Ire on U.S. Role; Is Regulator Independent?
Pressure From Conservatives
May 10, 2006
JUPITER, Fla. -- Stuart Lawley wants to create a new Internet neighborhood for the adult-entertainment industry: dot-xxx. The 43-year-old British entrepreneur believes the new three-letter ending for Web-site addresses would help protect children from online pornography, by making it easier to filter such material. He also hopes to make a pile of money by collecting fees for registering dot-xxx sites.
Mr. Lawley's proposal also raises thorny issues for the U.S. government, which funded the creation of the Internet and has long played a behind-the-scenes role in running it. As the Internet grows as a place of business and a forum for exchanging ideas, some have argued that it shouldn't be dominated by any one country. That discontent has prompted a few countries and regions to begin breaking away and forming their own Internet-like computer networks -- a threat to the universality that makes the Internet such a powerful tool.
The Commerce Department has expressed reservations about the dot-xxx measure, amid a flood of email from conservative groups, according to internal government documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. In one document, the department made clear that it could block the proposal if the domain-name organization, called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, approves it. As a result of the concerns, Icann has postponed several scheduled votes since last August.
The Commerce Department says it wanted to make sure that Icann had received input from all interested parties.
"We expected an objective process," says Mr. Lawley, in the living room of his opulent, Mediterranean-style home on the waterfront here. "So we found it bizarre that the Commerce Department would want to get involved in the minutiae of a single contract."
Commerce established Icann in 1998 as a way to formalize the approval of new domain-name suffixes and other technical procedures that keep the Internet running. The majority of its board members are non-American. The department has usually been careful not to meddle publicly with Icann, a nonprofit group based in Marina del Rey, Calif.
But as Internet use has exploded around the globe in recent years, carrying more than $2 trillion in annual commerce, discontent among other governments over the U.S.'s influence has grown. Now the dot-xxx case is becoming a flashpoint for that criticism.
"Icann exists to make technical decisions about the Internet," says Martin Selmayr, an official in the European Commission office that oversees Internet and telecom matters. "It's unacceptable to make the question of whether to approve a domain address a political decision, based on the government of the day."
Last June, the Commerce Department signaled it had no intention of giving up its oversight of Icann, a statement that angered countries expecting Commerce to sever its ties. That question will come to a head soon, since Commerce's memorandum of understanding that established Icann is up for renewal by the department in September.
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Then, conservative groups jumped into the fray. The Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America implored supporters to write to the Commerce Department to oppose dot-xxx. They argue, among other things, that the concept legitimizes online pornography. Because it doesn't require adult-content providers to move their material from their dot-com sites to dot-xxx sites, the step just adds pornography to the Internet, they say.
"The porn industry is constantly preying on the eyes of our children," says Charmaine Yoest, a spokeswoman for the Family Research Council. "This would only double porn holdings on the Internet."
On June 16, in an internal email, a Commerce official said the administration needed to make it clear to conservative Christian groups that the White House shared their opposition to dot-xxx.
"Who really matters in this mess is Jim Dobson," wrote Fred Schwien, the executive secretary to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, according to the documents reviewed by the Journal. Mr. Dobson is an evangelical Christian who hosts a highly influential daily radio show called "Focus on the Family."
"My suggestion is that someone from the White House ought to call him ASAP and explain the situation, including that the White House doesn't support the porn industry in any way, shape, or form, including giving them their own domain name," Mr. Schwien wrote, according to the documents.
On Aug. 11, five days before Icann's scheduled vote on the dot-xxx proposal, Michael Gallagher, then the official responsible for Internet matters within the Commerce Department, wrote to Icann stating it had received nearly 6,000 letters and emails opposing the domain-name suffix due to "concern about the impact of pornography on families and children."
The letter, which was made public, didn't disclose Commerce's opinion on the matter. But an internal memo prepared by Commerce, titled "United States Control of the Domain Name System," spelled out how the U.S. could kill the plan: "If the international community decides to develop an .XXX domain for adult material, it will not go on the Top Level Domain (TLD) registry if the U.S. does not wish for that to happen." The top-level domain registry refers to the list of approved domain suffixes, which Icann manages.
Some in the adult-entertainment industry itself also oppose the plan. "This is probably the only time that my industry and folks on the far right agree on something," says Steven Hirsch, the founder and co-CEO of Los Angeles-based Vivid Entertainment Group, which makes about 60 adult films a year. More than a third of its revenue comes from online sales, he estimates. "Dot-com is much better known, and we have spent millions of dollars promoting our dot-com business," he adds.
