Citing "serious concerns" about whether there is adult-industry support for the proposed dot-xxx sponsored Top-Level Domain, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has opened another public comment period about the sTLD.
During a Feb. 12 meeting, the majority of ICANN's board of directors—including Chairman Vinton Cerf and members Alejandro Pisanty, Raimundo Beca, Steve Goldstein, Rita Rodin, Roberto Gaetano, Vanda Scartezini, Kurt Pritz, and Demi Getschko—expressed concern about what they perceived as significant opposition to dot-xxx which has been growing during the past six months among adult webmasters and the public at large. ICANN liaisons Suzanne Woolf, Sharil Tarmizi, and Vittorio Bertola also expressed significant concern, but cannot vote on issues facing the board.
Only three board members—Susan Crawford, Joichi Ito, and Dave Wodelet—said they did not have "serious concerns" and expressed a belief it was "an inappropriate burden to place on ICM to ensure that the entire adult online community was supportive of the proposed domain."
ICANN General Counsel John Jeffrey noted that during the most recent public comment period—from Jan. 5 to Feb. 5—ICANN received more than 600 public comments and more than 55,000 emails. Nearly all of the emails, which were generated by a form-letter campaign sponsored by a religious website, expressed opposition to dot-xxx. Of the public comments, 488—or 77 percent—opposed dot-xxx.
The bulk of the board meeting's minutes was devoted to the dot-xxx discussion, which resulted in a unanimous two-part resolution: that Appendix S of the proposed agreement between registrar-hopeful ICM Registry and ICANN be posted for public comment because changes were made to it during the last public comment period, and whether an actual "sponsoring community" exists needs to be determined.
"ICANN staff will consult with ICM and provide further information to the board prior to its next meeting, so as to inform a decision by the board about whether sponsorship criteria is met for the creation of a new dot-xxx sTLD," the resolution read.
The board also has requested a transcript of the dot-xxx forum that took place during the recent XBiz Hollywood conference.
Reaction within the adult online community was swift and predictable. Chicago First Amendment attorney Reed Lee called the opening of a new public comment period "very welcome news."
"It is clear that many of the ICANN board members are now openly skeptical of ICM's claims of substantial support for its dot-xxx sTLD proposal within the adult Internet community. That is also very welcome news," he said, adding that attorneys have worked to bring the adult Internet community's concerns about and opposition to dot-xxx to ICANN's attention.
"We will continue to do so in the weeks and months ahead until ICANN realizes that dot-xxx is not a sound proposal for anything except, perhaps, to make some interlopers a bunch of money," Lee added. "We will do our best to marshal opposition to dot-xxx even from constituencies which have not yet weighed in on the issue."
Lee explained that the adult-industry trade group Free Speech Coalition (of which he is a board member) was asked for its support for ICM's dot-xxx sTLD proposal very early on.
"Recognizing the serious dangers, [the FSC] opposed it from the outset," he said. "Other adult Internet activists also organized early grassroots opposition. We are delighted that the adult Internet community now speaks with virtual unanimity in opposition to ICM's dot-xxx sTLD proposal."
Seattle-based First Amendment attorney Rob Apgood told AVN Online, "I really can't predict what ICANN will do. However, I do believe that dot-xxx is a bad thing. It is fraught with the potential to quickly become a tool for Congress to impose prior restraint on completely protected speech. While I doubt that such restraint would ultimately survive judicial scrutiny, to create a paradigm where Congress could even be tempted to impose prior restraint is inherently objectionable and should be avoided at all costs."
While Apgood never has equivocated about the necessity for the adult industry to self-regulate, he said he believes dot-xxx should not be imposed by outsiders as a vehicle for that effort.
"An enormous amount of money and time has been spent in the promotion of this enterprise by those who stand to profit from it," noted First Amendment J.D. Obenberger in a lengthy email delivered to both ICANN and AVN Online on Feb. 16. "Because there is essentially no demand for this sTLD from within the adult Internet industry, it can only be surmised that [ICM's] business plan includes cross-registrations from existing adult dot-com registrants in order to protect against infringing use of a domain name in the dot-xxx sTLD—and the potential gold mine of legally mandated use of the sTLD. Both of these income streams are created or potentially created because of fear or coercion arising merely because the proposed sTLD will exist. My own sense of ethics suggests that what the promoters are foisting on ICANN amounts to a disreputable business scheme of creating profit from a thing of no legitimate value whatsoever to any person."
Brandon Shalton, a provider of technology to the adult industry who also operates FightTheDotXXX.com and has been an outspoken opponent of the proposed sTLD from the beginning, also shared his thoughts about the recent developments.
"In reading the summary [of the board-meeting minutes], you've got an interesting mix of several board members who want to get dot-xxx approved and [others] who are now seeing the adult industry's side of things," he said. "It all comes down to what's defined as the sponsorship community. The way ICM [defined the community], basically any responsible webmaster who wants to label [his or her websites as containing adult content] is considered community. That doesn't necessarily mean the adult industry, so it's a fine-line definition—and one that doesn't seem to be holding up [in light of] all of this opposition."
The next ICANN public meeting is scheduled for March 26 in Lisbon, Portugal, and a vote about dot-xxx may occur then, although ICANN representatives could not be reached to confirm that and an agenda is not yet available.
If a vote is called at that time, Shalton said he believes "it could go down either way. It could come down to the technicalities where [ICANN has] gotten past all of the community definitions and they're just [voting] on the technical merits of the agreement, or the ICANN board members may go back to challenge the definition of sponsored community because of this outcry and then maybe realize that this was not a good idea. It'll be very interesting to see what happens."
ICM Registry Chairman and President Stuart Lawley did not respond to requests for comment about the situation.
