FightTheDotXXX.com, a website expressing adult industry opposition to the proposed dot-xxx sponsored Top Level Domain (sTLD), has been launched by Acacia opponent and FightThePatent.com owner Brandon Shalton.
On the site, along with the history of dot-xxx, news, and opinions, is an interesting list of companies who are outwardly opposing the sTLD. Along with the usual, vocal suspects – Free Speech Coalition, YNOT, SmashBucks – are 21 other companies and individuals, including players like Adam & Eve, Homegrown Video, and The SCORE Group.
Shalton will be soliciting more companies in the next few days and then plans to send the resulting list to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which will ultimately decided whether to give dot-xxx final approval on September 15.
Ultimately, the industry has been able to take this public stand after the Department of Commerce asked ICANN to delay giving dot-xxx final approval at the 11th hour. ICAAN was slated to give ICM Registry, the company responsible for bringing dot-xxx this far, the green light to implement dot-xxx on August 15. However, Commerce received a flood of letters, mostly from conservative religious groups like the Family Research Council, expressing concern about the sTLD, and it responded by asking for the delay.
“Every little bit helps. The Bush administration and [the] right … have shown their objections, FSC is showing theirs, and the webmasters who will actually be affected by this TLD are taking a public stand against it,” Shalton says.
Whether that will be enough remains to be seen. While some companies and individuals have been campaigning enthusiastically against dot-xxx for some time, most of the industry has been quiet or inactive. Shalton said some companies he approached about lending their names to his site, while against the idea of dot-xxx, refused to do so because they felt their silence would put them in a better position to acquire dot-xxx domains should they become available.
Still, Shalton believes there is now a solid chance of quashing the sTLD.
“I believe that the conservatives will be the ones that push dot-xxx down. The adult industry’s lack of support is just the icing. It should be the other way around, but how ironic that it has turned out this way so far,” he says.
