Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
That's interesting.
But even though I'm not an attorney, that sounds right off the bat like it wouldn't fly.
For instance, if I decide to start up .sex because I'm a sex researcher and it's intention is for companies that do sexual research, condom companies, birth control companies etc....then .xxx can't do a damn thing about it.
And if thousands of porn sites decide to buy a .sex extension? Again, nothing anybody can do about it. lol
.XXX are fucked in my opinion. Bunch of leaches and parasites that have never really BEEN in this business.
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True enough, most likely.... but you've just described something that wouldn't compete with .XXX, because it wouldn't be for porn, so I'm not sure why ICM would object to it in the first place.
As to whether anything could be done about it if porn site operators registered domains on such a TLD, if a .SEX TLD came into existence and avoided the issue of a challenge from ICM by stating an intent to serve sex researchers, condom companies and the like, I'm fairly certain that ICANN would require the agreement with the TLD registry/operator to include set of bylaws that registrants of .SEX domains would have to adhere to, and that running porn sites on that TLD would violate those bylaws.
So, if someone registered a .SEX domain and put a porn site there, they could have their domain summarily yanked by the TLD operator. Under the Registrant Agreement that Tralliance Registry (the registry that operates .Travel) has with ICANN, for example, Tralliance can revoke the license of any .Travel site operator unilaterally, if the site operator does any number of things that are covered under the "Revocation" section of Tralliance's agreement with ICANN.
Suppose the registry that owned .SEX refused to enforce its own terms and just looked the other way when site operators set up porn sites there? Well, then the registry would very likely be in violation of its agreement with ICANN... which is probably not that great an idea. ;-)
It's quite possible that somebody could sue ICANN over blocking the establishment of TLDs that compete with .XXX, and I really have no clue how such a case would play out. I wouldn't be
too surprised if ICANN were given a fair amount of discretion by the Court with respect to enforcing its own rules and contracts, though.
Suing ICANN over blocking competing TLDs also would introduce even more expense to the act of establishing the .SEX/.PORN/.WHATEVER TLD, and it would take quite a while to play out in court; probably at least a couple years, and at least several hundred thousand bucks.
If it's already questionable whether any TLD other than .COM is worthwhile to use for porn site operators, what would be the impetus to spend the money to sue for the right to establish a new porn-related TLD? Keep in mind that if you win that lawsuit against ICANN, you would still have to pay the $185k application fee, then pay the other fees that follow the initial application fee if you get approved, acquire the requisite technical infrastructure if you don't already have such in hand (which is itself a potentially substantial cost), etc. etc.
To me, if it is questionable whether anything other than .COM is worth the price of establishment, and the future of .XXX is dicey accordingly, then it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to go through everything outlined above just to establish a TLD that competes with .XXX.
I personally don't think .XXX is going to take off and become the 'next big thing,' but I think it's even less likely that another porn-specific TLD, which could not be established any time soon (even if ICM doesn't or can't object, the process of getting a new gTLD of any kind up and running is going to take a fair amount of time from where we stand today) would turn out to be a profitable enterprise.
Of course, all of this is only really relevant if what I've heard about ICM's agreement with ICANN is true, and I'm still trying to confirm/refute that.
Sorry for the long-winded post, btw; brevity has never been my strong suit. ;-)