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ICANN rejects XXX domain for third time
A key Internet oversight agency on Friday rejected a proposed plan to give adult Web sites their own ".xxx" top-level domain (TLD), putting brakes for a third and possibly final time on Stuart Lawley’s nearly seven years long efforts to construct an online red-light district.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which has already rejected similar proposals twice since 2000, voted 9-5 to reject the application written and revised by Lawley and his Toronto-based company, ICM Registry Llc.
Lawley has been trying for the last seven years to build a red-light district on the Internet, contending that it could help, at least nominally, keep children away from pornographic Web sites, and provide families with a tool to filter their children's exposure to adult content.
But his proposal voted down by the board of the ICANN, responsible for setting guidelines for the creation of Internet domain names, saying such a domain would raise "significant law enforcement compliance issues because of countries' varying laws relating to content."
The ICANN also feared that dot-xxx could force ICANN into a new, unwanted role as content regulator, even though the proposed domain name would be voluntary. On contrary, Lawley had argued that such a job would have gone to the International Foundation for Online Responsibility, a Canadian non-profit, and not ICANN.
"We are extremely disappointed by the board's action today," said Stuart Lawley, ICM's president and chief executive. "It is not supportable for any of the reasons articulated by the board, ignores the rules ICANN itself adopted for the RFP (request for proposal), and makes a mockery of ICANN bylaws' prohibition of unjustifiable discriminatory treatment."
The Canadian government also warned this week that ICM-backed proposal could put the ICANN in the tricky business of content regulation, having to decide which sites are pornographic and which are not.
According to Roberto Gaetono, a board member, he was unwilling to give his node to the proposal because a "large part of the community thinks that if we approve dot-xxx, all that material ... will magically move into dot-xxx, and therefore children will be protected, because it will be easy to filter. That, in my opinion, is not going to happen."
Vinton Cerf, ICANN chairman, said the board’s decision terminates the ICM bid, meaning ICANN would not permit ICM come back with a revised proposal as it had before.
Although, ICANN will no longer hear the proposal but that does not mean that an entirely new application could be drawn up and offered for consideration.
ICANN rejected the original proposal, tabled in 2000, on the grounds that it would force the international body to become a regulator of content, which it had no interest in doing. ICM Registry resubmitted its proposal in 2004, but ICANN gain rejected the proposal, this time on the grounds that it was too vague.
Lawley is likely to file a lawsuit against ICANN.
A key Internet oversight agency on Friday rejected a proposed plan to give adult Web sites their own ".xxx" top-level domain (TLD), putting brakes for a third and possibly final time on Stuart Lawley’s nearly seven years long efforts to construct an online red-light district.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which has already rejected similar proposals twice since 2000, voted 9-5 to reject the application written and revised by Lawley and his Toronto-based company, ICM Registry Llc.
Lawley has been trying for the last seven years to build a red-light district on the Internet, contending that it could help, at least nominally, keep children away from pornographic Web sites, and provide families with a tool to filter their children's exposure to adult content.
But his proposal voted down by the board of the ICANN, responsible for setting guidelines for the creation of Internet domain names, saying such a domain would raise "significant law enforcement compliance issues because of countries' varying laws relating to content."
The ICANN also feared that dot-xxx could force ICANN into a new, unwanted role as content regulator, even though the proposed domain name would be voluntary. On contrary, Lawley had argued that such a job would have gone to the International Foundation for Online Responsibility, a Canadian non-profit, and not ICANN.
"We are extremely disappointed by the board's action today," said Stuart Lawley, ICM's president and chief executive. "It is not supportable for any of the reasons articulated by the board, ignores the rules ICANN itself adopted for the RFP (request for proposal), and makes a mockery of ICANN bylaws' prohibition of unjustifiable discriminatory treatment."
The Canadian government also warned this week that ICM-backed proposal could put the ICANN in the tricky business of content regulation, having to decide which sites are pornographic and which are not.
According to Roberto Gaetono, a board member, he was unwilling to give his node to the proposal because a "large part of the community thinks that if we approve dot-xxx, all that material ... will magically move into dot-xxx, and therefore children will be protected, because it will be easy to filter. That, in my opinion, is not going to happen."
Vinton Cerf, ICANN chairman, said the board’s decision terminates the ICM bid, meaning ICANN would not permit ICM come back with a revised proposal as it had before.
Although, ICANN will no longer hear the proposal but that does not mean that an entirely new application could be drawn up and offered for consideration.
ICANN rejected the original proposal, tabled in 2000, on the grounds that it would force the international body to become a regulator of content, which it had no interest in doing. ICM Registry resubmitted its proposal in 2004, but ICANN gain rejected the proposal, this time on the grounds that it was too vague.
Lawley is likely to file a lawsuit against ICANN.
Source: http://www.themoneytimes.com/article...id-103221.html
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