WhiteHouse.xxx

A recent ruling has blocked the valiant would-be founder of the .xxx domain from obtaining documents he believes will show the Bush administration clamping down on the domain due to pressure from conservative groups:

By way of background, ICM Registry had proposed the porn-friendly .xxx domain in 2004 to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, four years after ICANN rejected the idea the first time. In June 2005, ICANN approved .xxx--but the Bush administration objected two months later, and ICANN's board subsequently reversed itself by a 9-5 vote.

ICM Registry's Stuart Lawley, an indefatigable entrepreneur who made his fortune by founding a U.K. Internet service provider, didn't give up. He filed a FOIA request to learn how conservative groups pressured the Bush administration, and he released the first round of documents in May 2006. But the State Department and Commerce Department withheld others--claiming they were part of an internal "deliberative process"--and those are the documents at issue in the current lawsuit.

The world may yet get a .xxx domain. According to CNET.com, the lawyer representing ICM (and the truly lazy porn-seekers of the world) "said a lawsuit against ICANN for denying the .xxx top-level domain is now possible."

reason "In Praise of Porn" here, and on porn in Palestine here.

Comments

[Rhywun]

I'll wholeheartedly support .xxx if porn providers agree to stop filling my inbox with spam. Didn't think so.

[Da Boss]

PORN IN THE USA (I want) PORN IN THE USA...

[mediageek]

Rhywun, if you don't want porn in your inbox, don't use your email address to sign up for porn sites.

[Click, read, think, and learn]

Sounds like a class action. A real classy action. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

[t3knomanser]

The .xxx domain is an awful idea. AWFUL.

First, how do we decide what content goes on it? Who decides? What happens to all the old .com domains owned by porn sites?

Even the W3C thinks it's a bad idea: http://www.w3.org/2004/03/28-tld

[Episiarch]

Rhywun, if you don't want porn in your inbox, don't use your email address to sign up for porn sites.

He didn't; I use all of you guys' email addresses instead of mine when I hit the porn sites for furries.

YIFFY!

[Rhywun]

if you don't want porn in your inbox, don't use your email address to sign up for porn sites

True enough... But you'd think by now they'd have a more accurate picture of what I'm into. (Hint: it's not "puzzy".)

[ClubMedSux]

He didn't; I use all of you guys' email addresses instead of mine when I hit the porn sites for furries.

Oh, please. Furries are so 2007. Today all the cool pervs are into vore.

[J sub D]

It seems obvious to this uneducated lad that an XXX (OMG. think of the children!) domain would make it a lot easier for content filtering software engineers, and by extension parents, to keep "adult oriented material", i.e. porn, away from children.

If I were a parent, I'd be clamoring for it.

[Rhywun]

J sub D,

Only if all porn were restricted to .xxx. I doubt that's in the plan.

[Colonel_Angus]

The creation of a .xxx domain is acceptable to me as long as its use is not mandatory, and other domains are still available for teh pr0n.

Screw vore. Crush fettish is fucking metal!

[J sub D]

Only if all porn were restricted to .xxx. I doubt that's in the plan.

There is no way to keep porn off the other domains. I accept that. I do think the vast majority of porn sites would happily relocate to XXX. That is where the customers are going to be.

[Taktix?]

It seems obvious to this uneducated lad that an XXX (OMG. think of the children!) domain would make it a lot easier for content filtering software engineers, and by extension parents, to keep "adult oriented material", i.e. porn, away from children.

If I were a parent, I'd be clamoring for it.

And if you were a politician seeking to be everyone's parent, you'd clamor for it too. Sorry folks, this is a terrible idea.

It doesn't take long after this passes to approve laws restricting .xxx domains. And we all know that once the government has it's slimy tentacles into something, it seldom lets go.

It opens up the means for a porn tax and all manner of regulation that no free-loving person wants.

If you something in a box, don't be surprised of someone wants to lock it one day.

I do think the vast majority of porn sites would happily relocate to XXX.

IIRC, when this ruling hit, the vast majority of porn sites were lobbying against it. In fact, I think I even read about this on reason, back when Virginia Postrel Nick Gillespie was the editor.

You know, the good times.

(OK, that last part was a joke, but I'm serious about the .xxx)

[Colonel_Angus]

I'm thinking of starting some type of pornography historical society using the .org domain to educate the public. It will produce documentaries with a lot of slow pans across photographs. I could also sponsor reenactments of historically significant moments in porn history.

[.]

There is no way to keep porn off the other domains. I accept that. I do think the vast majority of porn sites would happily relocate to XXX. That is where the customers are going to be.

That would depend on how the porn site operates, I think.

If advertising revenue is a major component in their business model, the 13-17 year old male is probably a major source of income for them.

[New World Dan]

ICANN only controls TLDs by popular consensus. There are many alternate root DNS systems out there (I used to use a few of them), but they're not particularly popular.

.XXX as a domain name would be useful as something else to filter against, but on a practical level, most sites are going to still be registering .COM, .NET, and .ORG in addition to .XXX. I've leared the hard way that if you don't register the major root domain variants of your domain name, some asshole will register them and set up a porn site on them.

[.]

There's also the likely scenario of Congress getting a little power happy and treating .xxx websites as second class citizens in some way.

[boston]

I would google it, and yet i am at work. But iirc AVN and groups like it were totally against this for reasons Taktix? stated.

[ClubMedSux]

If advertising revenue is a major component in their business model, the 13-17 year old male is probably a major source of income for them.

I've never seen a porn site myself, but from what my friends ClubMedBux and SchlubMedSux tell me, pretty much all the ads are for either pay websites or adult products, none of which would likely be purchased by 13-17 year olds. Of course, I suppose you could use the old cigarette argument that they're getting them hooked so they shell out $$$ once they're of age. Anyway, the irony to me is that giving them their own domain suffix would only up the forbidden fruit value of these sites for underage children.

[J sub D]

The best argument against my original post.

Taktix?| March 19, 2008, 3:51pm
... It doesn't take long after this passes to approve laws restricting .xxx domains. And we all know that once the government has it's slimy tentacles into something, it seldom lets go.

It opens up the means for a porn tax and all manner of regulation that no free-loving person wants....

The slippery slope argument has a WHOLE LOT of credibility.

Reading, not just argueing, is why we discuss things here, right? I'm convinced. No porn ghetto on the tubes.

[Taktix?]

J sub D,

Fair enough, but you seem to have conveniently redacted the rest of my argument, namely the part about porn site groups fighting the .xxx label. What happened to letting the market decide?

If you want me to look it up, I'll have to do that from home in about an hour, but for now, I must tell you that I am 99.9% certain that this is true.

[boston]

Taktix?,

I think you convinced him. or maybe i am dumb. or maybe both

[J sub D]

Fair enough, but you seem to have conveniently redacted the rest of my argument, namely the part about porn site groups fighting the .xxx label. What happened to letting the market decide?

If you want me to look it up, I'll have to do that from home in about an hour, but for now, I must tell you that I am 99.9% certain that this is true.

If you create it, but not require its use, wouldn't that be letting the market decide? That is where I was proceding from.

[Taktix?]

If you create it, but not require its use, wouldn't that be letting the market decide?

The assumption that use will not be required is where we have an impasse (explained below).

I realize that a slippery slope argument is not entirely sound, but would you be willing to concede that:

A) There are people who want pornography regulated.

B) The internet is the only remaining medium where pornography is not regulated.

C) A porn-only domain is a great vehicle for targeted regulation.

D) Once the regulation seal is broken, a precedent is made for other forms of domain regulation.

As I stated then, the question is whether or not .xxx usage will become compulsory.

Now let's step out of the academic-logic bubble for a second.

Are you telling me that, in this day and age, it is unsafe to assume that some time in the near future, if a separate .xxx domain is in use, that some jerk-off politician will rally a cause for compulsory use, you know, for the children?

[J sub D]

I realize that a slippery slope argument is not entirely sound, but would you be willing to concede that:

I'm a smoker. The slippery sl;ope argument resonates more than you know.

Are you telling me that, in this day and age, it is unsafe to assume that some time in the near future, if a separate .xxx domain is in use, that some jerk-off politician will rally a cause for compulsory use, you know, for the children?

Certainly not. I agree with all of your points. I was just explaining my previous thinking. If you want an argument, you have to change the subject. 😉

[J sub D]

And after cumpusory use, as sure as night follows day, other restrictions will follow.

[R C Dean]

I don't even want to know what "cumpusory use" in a porn thread refers to.

[Taktix?]

J sub D,

Sorry to be argumentative. Sometimes, accusing me of a logical fallacy is akin to the slap of a glove in a Medieval court 🙂

En garde!

[J sub D]

Taktix?

Have your second contact mine.
Blunderbusses an ten paces?

[John Jackson]

Strange. Why would anyone actually want .xxx?

All the adult marketers I know do NOT want .xxx domains. I remember there being a conspiracy that the Bushiters wanted .xxx so they could force adult websites into an online xxx ghetto to marginalize them.

Porners I know dont want that stain. They like the dotcoms.