Will FSC Change Its Mind On .xxx Domain?

The Free Speech Coalition’s general meeting planned for next week will examine the lobbying arm of the adult industry’s stance against a separate .xxx Internet domain for adult Websites.  

The group first rejected the separate adult top-level Net domain, according to executive director Bill Lyon, because they rejected what he calls the "ghettoization" of the Internet and, more important, because a separate adult domain could make for far easier arbitrary filtering opportunities. 

But the FSC at next week's meeting will discuss pros and cons of the separate adult Net domain and follow it with a question-and-answer period before asking members to vote on whether to back the domain. 

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) rejected the establishment of a separate .xxx domain in 2000-01. But Lyon said the prime reason for FSC mulling a change in its opposition to the separate domain now is a Canadian company, ICM Registry, asking FSC to become part of a nonprofit they're setting up to attract people to registering in the .xxx domain. 

"Free Speech Coalition is really a logical partner for this," said ICM president Jason Hendeles, whose company will be represented at the August 21 meeting. "There's a mix of credible representatives to the (adult) industry that can both defend the industry and their action online, and I also think the adult community trusts the FSC." 

"And they have indicated that it would be financially remunerative to us if we did that," Lyon told AVN.com August 14. "We might be able to get a certain amount of money for FSC for each URL that was sold. And that, of course, is attractive, because we're always short of money for things we want to do." 

Hendeles emphasizes that the .xxx domain as ICM is formulating it would be "completely voluntary, though it's intended for adult Webmasters should they want to register," with ICM working on the idea based on concerns adult Webmasters raised to them since the first ICANN turn-down. 

He also said alarms about "ghettoization" of the Internet and prospectively easier filtering, with all filtering's known and possible glitches, might be somewhat premature. "There's a lot of arguments that are emotional coming out about this," he said. "The ghettoization is…not going to happen, the First Amendment isn't going to allow that. 

"But those kinds of opinions are very American-centric opinions about a medium that is inherently unregulatable, and is internationally not under the control of the U.S. government," Hendeles continued.  "There's just not going to be a way to move or force or pressure two million adult websites to just not exist anymore or to move into one place." 

Lyon  thinks that while the prospect of a new revenue source for FSC is significant, what's more important, from his and the group's standpoint, is their prime mission of protecting adult entertainment, a mission Lyon fears would be compromised irrevocably if a separate .xxx Net domain is established and FSC reverses position to endorse it. 

"Speaking strictly for myself, (I fear) that we would endanger ourselves by doing this," he said . "One of the things I think is terribly important is because of our influence at this time and our ability to lobby successfully in Washington, if this thing went through and we endorse it and a couple of years down the road the government wanted to pass some kind of legislation to push people into that adult domain, we would lose all credibility to fight it, because we'll appear to have endorsed the voluntary side of the domain already. And how can we fight what we've endorsed." 

Hendeles, however, said that that's not quite as grave a danger as people might think. For one thing, he said, it would be difficult for the U.S. to come up "globally…with any kind of definition, criteria, that would classify an adult Website as an adult Website. To impose that kind of criteria globally wouldn't be able to withstand any constitutional challenge or court review. 

"There's been several very vocal people in the US government that have stood up and rejected the idea that any government could mandate this space," Hendeles said.

“I wouldn't call it a separate TLD because the registry is completely voluntary but it's intended for adult Webmasters should they want to register,” Hendeles said. 

Whether FSC will change its current position against the .xxx domain remains to be seen. Lyon said members he's spoken to in the past few weeks continue opposing it, "but I honestly don't know if (we'll) turn it down next week. There are (other) members who are for it.)"

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