Unlike the fabled recipe of chicken soup for the common cold, dot-xxx (.xxx) could hurt. Much more than it could help. None of the advocates of the .xxx domain, including those who spoke at the Aug. 21 meeting of the Free Speech Coalition, have been able to say how this could improve business. There's simply no reason for us to adopt this top-level domain. I mean, is anybody out there having trouble finding porn on the Internet?
The bigger problem is that .xxx, unlike other domains, is about content; that is, the specific type of material that would be included in such a domain. All other top-level domains can be filled with a variety of content. Just look at the variety of Websites in .com or .org or .net.
It might seem as if a .xxx domain would be one more step in the mainstream acceptance of porn, but it is actually a step toward segregation. To be part of the mainstream, we must integrate into the norm of society. This allows us no special class, no additional rights for porn. We need to have just the same rights as any other form of speech and art and commerce.
The non-binding vote at the FSC meeting was split along predictable lines: the newer Internet-oriented people favoring the new domain name, the older professionals, who have faced many personal and legal hardships over the years, voting against. I think it's difficult for the newcomers to comprehend the dangers involved, from federal and local prosecutions to attacks by religious fanatics. Remember about 10 years ago or so when a whole bunch of us got death threats from a religious group in Hawaii? That was frightening. And something all of us took very seriously.
The new Internet people don't have the advantage of time and perspective on this issue. I can remember when no one in the U.S. was transmitting live hardcore over the Net. I know, because in 1997 Cherie LaVeaux and I did the first commercial hardcore live sex show ever sent over the Internet from the United States. Holland, Germany, and even Canada were ahead of the curve on that, and swingers were using Webcams to share their erotic exploits. But no one in the U.S. was doing live commercial hardcore. I happened to hook up with some folks who wanted to try it, and after talking with our lawyers, we began transmitting some test shows. Cherie LaVeaux and I did the first, followed a week later by Heather Lynn and Red, and then Randi Storm and I. Pretty soon, we had a full crew doing 12 hours a day, seven days a week. I remind people of this to show that I'm not someone who is afraid of pushing the envelope, of trying new things. But the new things we try must offer a real advantage for us. The .xxx TLD does not.
Today, nobody blinks at the idea of live hardcore sex on the Net. But it was just a half-dozen years ago that everyone was afraid to try it. Just 40 years ago, porn producers were selling their wares out of the trunks of cars, driving to various art houses or even men's clubs that would show the 8mm or 16mm film on a sheet hung on a basement wall. That was porn distribution back then. Twenty years ago, we were moving from film to video, and 10 years ago we had the beginnings of the Internet. But every step of the way has been a battle. To create a .xxx top-level domain could push the industry back to the days when we were zoned into the most undesirable business locations possible. It lumps all of us into one category and makes us an easy target for government regulation and prosecution.
And who's to say what would go (could go) into a .xxx Website? Experts have struggled for decades to find a legal way to adequately and accurately describe pornography. I have my definition - "a presentation of sex for the purposes of entertainment, education, or edification" - but somehow I don't think the Supreme Court is tomorrow going to say, "Well, let's just adopt Tal's definition of porn and be done with it."
We have to do something to show the government that we can self-regulate, that we can take care of problems within our industry when they arise. There will obviously be more discussion and more meetings on this issue. The recent FSC vote was non-binding. But we will be called to make a final, binding vote soon.
What I'm voting for is for the industry to self-regulate, to clean up its act and to be good corporate citizens. But .xxx is not the answer at this time.
Taliesin the Bard is a popular part-time porn performer, pagan pundit, and prominent pro-sex partisan, as well as being addicted to atrocious alliteration. He chronicles the wondrous and wacky world of porn, polyamory, swinging, and other alternative sexualities in words and pictures at www.taliesinthebard.com.
