The round of Top-Level Domain proposals begun in 2004 was completed with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' rejection of ICM Registry LLC's proposal to oversee now-defunct dot-xxx, and the organization has "no plans for another round of TLD proposals," according to the chairman of its board of directors.
"My first response [to whether ICANN might consider another dot-xxx proposal in the future] is 'over my dead body,'" ICANN Chairman Vinton Cerf said with a laugh during a Friday press conference.
Two hours of the ICANN board's Friday morning meeting were devoted to a lively discussion about the controversial proposed sponsored TLD, Cerf said. Primarily, the nine (of 15) board members who voted to reject dot-xxx did so because of a number of questions about support within the supposedly sponsoring community—ostensibly, adult entertainment producers and distributors—and policy issues raised by ICANN's Government Advisory Committee, Cerf said. In addition, Cerf noted that many board members expressed concern that should ICANN approve the domain, it might find itself "involved in assessing content and its character," and that is outside the bounds of the organization's charter.
"The board does not believe we should be involved in content at all, and in fact [assessing content] could be a very serious problem for ICANN," Cerf said.
Both Cerf and ICANN Chief Executive Officer Paul Twomey (who was the lone abstention from the dot-xxx vote) stressed that board members' deliberations about dot-xxx focused solely on "issues of criteria in the [request for proposal]" and advice submitted by the GAC and not on the nature of the content proposed for inclusion in the domain.
"When the [GAC] supplies advice, it is incumbent upon us to take that advice into account or explain to them why we didn't," Cerf said, referring to a Thursday communiqué in which the GAC voiced disapproval of dot-xxx.
Cerf also stressed that ICANN is engaged in refining its RFP policies and procedures vis-à-vis new TLDs, and "if another [controversy] like this one arises in the future, we will have a policy for dealing with disputes," he said. "I don't know what the process will be…."
Twomey added, "The rules for the future are not yet defined," but they should be by the end of the year.
In the final analysis, according to Cerf, "the contractual vehicle [between ICM and ICANN] was not adequate to the task."
ICM Registry President and Chief Executive Officer Stuart Lawley indicated ICM will not give up easily.
"We are extremely disappointed by the board's action today," Lawley told AVNOnline.com via email just as he was about to depart Lisbon. "It is not supportable for any of the reasons articulated by the board, ignores the rules ICANN itself adopted for the RFP, and makes a mockery of ICANN's bylaws prohibition of unjustifiable discriminatory treatment.
"Not least to protect the integrity of the ICANN process, ICM Registry will pursue this matter energetically," he wrote.
Cerf said should ICM pursue recourse through the courts, it will not be the first time ICANN has faced litigation over TLD rejection. If ICM initiates legal proceedings, ICANN's board and its legal counsel will confer about an appropriate response, he said.
