Rally Against .XXX at ICANN Meeting

[u-Bob]

http://domainnamewire.com/2011/03/08...icann-meeting/

Adult industry lobbying group Free Speech Coalition is calling for a rally outside the ICANN meeting at the Westin in San Francisco next week.

Citing ?a time when rallies are changing the world around us?, evoking images I suppose of unions in Wisconsin and (say it ain?t so) uprisings in Northern Africa, Free Speech Coalition is calling for ?all industry professionals to rally in San Francisco against .XXX!!?

The group says a shortened public comment period before next week?s board vote is specifically designed to limit Free Speech Coalition?s ability to speak out against the approval of .xxx. So it wants to rally outside the Union Square Westin from 12:30-2 pm. It also suggests that .xxx registry ICM Registry has ?bought? ICANN favor and its Chairman of the Board. (That?s probably not a good thing to suggest if you want to get the Chair on your side.)

If .xxx gets the green light anyway, Free Speech Coalition is calling for a boycott of .xxx.

Remember to tweet (even if if you've already done so ):

@ICANN we do not want the .xxx tld! #icann

@ICANN adult webmasters are opposed to the .xxx proposal. #icann

@ICANN show some integrity and say no to the .xxx proposal! #icann

@ICANN the adult industry does NOT want the .xxx tld! #icann

@ICANN if #icann approves the .xxx tld, icann will lose all credibility

@ICANN I am an adult webmaster and I say NO to the .xxx tld. #icann

@ICANN looks like the ICM Registry is in charge of #icann

@Namecheap we will boycott you if you support the .xxx tld. #icann

@MonikerSnap we will boycott you if you support the .xxx tld. #icann

[u-Bob]

older, but still worth linking to:
http://www.alligator.org/opinion/let...cc4c002e0.html
http://dotxxxopposition.com/2010/08/08/xxx-the-movie/
http://forum.icann.org/lists/icm-opt.../msg11648.html
http://forum.icann.org/lists/icm-opt.../msg00011.html
http://forum.icann.org/lists/icm-opt.../msg00206.html

[davecummings]

We ALL need to support this fight against .xxx.

[F-U-Jimmy]

Shit im in the UK at the moment otherwise i would have liked to be there

[u-Bob]

Originally Posted by F-U-Jimmy

Shit im in the UK at the moment otherwise i would have liked to be there

simply send a strongly worded tweet or email

[Redrob]

Afternoon Bump

[Redrob]

Evening Bump

[Robbie]

Tweeted.

[Redrob]

Calling all industry professionals to rally in San Francisco against .XXX!!

When: Thursday, March 17, 2011, from 12:30 ? 2:00 pm

Where: ICANN Conference, the Westin, San Francisco, Union Square, 335 Powell Street, San Francisco

What: Press conference and rally outside the Westin

Who: All industry professionals and supporters of the adult entertainment community.

If you can participate in the rally, contact Kim at Free Speech Coalition, at (818) 348-9373) or by email at [email protected]. We will provide additional information.

It you cannot participate but still want to be heard, we will launch a tweet campaign-make sure you are signed up and able to tweet by March 16, follow FSC on twitter and we will launch our campaign so that the decision makers are fully aware of where we stand on the issues.

[davecummings]

night bump

[Alprazolam]

you guys need to stop wasting your time on the adult biz people and start focusing on getting the nutball religious people out there to picket. the fsc should be calling churches, shit joan irvine should be calling churches in the bay area and telling them that they are going to pass this and their kids are doomed. those nutcases live for shit like this. adult entertainment people are lazy and most of them are not too smart anyhow.

focus on the religious nuts if you want a real showing of anti .XXX people.

[INever]

Aren't rallies appeals to conscience?

Since the players show they have none, what is the point?

[DWB]

Go search the #icann tag. Only a handful of people even give a shit about this. Matches the lack of replies on .XXX threads here.

No real surprise.

[DWB]

BTW... I did tweet.

[u-Bob]

Originally Posted by DirtyWhiteBoy

BTW... I did tweet.

I know

[u-Bob]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03...ainst_domains/

Porn stars are set to rally against the proposed .xxx top-level domain name outside the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) public meeting in San Francisco next week.

The Free Speech Coalition (FSC), a porn trade group, has called a press conference and rally outside the Westin St Francis Hotel in Union Square at 12.30pm, 17 March.

FSC president Diane Duke has invited "all industry professionals and supporters of the adult entertainment community" to show up to the protest.

The organisation believes .xxx will harm the adult entertainment business. It believes the domain invites censorship and blocking, and that the proposed registry operator, ICM Registry, sees dollar signs but does not have the best interests of the industry in mind.

ICM has previously stated its belief that the FSC is a California-centric organisation that does not represent the interests of porn webmasters worldwide. Thousands of people have pre-applied for over 200,000 .xxx domains.

In a series of blog posts over the last week, Duke has coined a new slogan: ".XXX is bullshit!"

ICM has been campaigning for the right to run .xxx for about a decade. Its current application has been moving through ICANN for the last seven years. Millions of dollars have been spent, mainly by ICM's president, British multimillionaire businessman Stuart Lawley.

The company recently hired M&C Saatchi, the noted ad agency, to come up with the slogan "Let's be adult about it".

Resistance to .xxx has been so fierce, from Christian groups as well as the porn business, that ICANN has had to create entirely new appeal and review mechanisms for processing the application.

The last such mechanism is a consultation with its Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), which is due to take place at the ICANN meeting next week.

The GAC, which represents dozens of international governments, formally objects to .xxx based on the public policy views of a minority of its members, but ICANN has indicated that it intends to overrule it, an unprecedented move.

The FSC knows the cards are stacked against it, and so is also considering a lawsuit against ICANN and/or ICM, and seeks an injunction to prevent the .xxx domain going live.

Barring an intervention from governments, the rally may prove to be a fruitless gesture. El Reg will of course provide coverage direct from the scene next Thursday regardless, and will endeavour to provide as many photographs as possible.

[theloller]

i don't fully understand the english, so ... what is that "rally" ?
i mean ... the rally i know is that one with cars
so i tought that this could be a really with pornostars ...
sorry for this stupid question.

[u-Bob]

a demonstration

If you can't make it, simply tweet!

[u-Bob]

inspiring words:

A .xxx tld would be the beginning of massive censorship on the internet

In the past senators Max Baucus (D., Montana) and Mark Pryor (D., Arkansas) have already proposed to make the use of a .xxx domain mandatory for adult content. Stuart Lawley of the ICM registry has already stated that if the .xxx tld is approved they will start lobbying to make it mandatory.

This opens a huge can of worms. What exactly is adult content? Hardcore Pr0n? Sites about breast cancer? Sex ed sites? A youtube video of women wearing bikinis?

Who gets to decide which sites can still use a .com domain and which sites will be forced to move into the .xxx ghetto? What about the owners of adult websites who have invested thousands of dollars into building a brand? What about their SE rankings? Do you really want to put thousands of people out of business simply because you don't like the product they are selling? Well, what if some Islamic extremist started closing down websites he didn't like? Or what if some extreme right Christian sect decided all sites about the theory of evolution are inappropriate?

And who will pay for all that? Surely policing the internet to make sure no one secretly put up some adult content on a .com domain would come at a cost. Do we raise the price of .com domains to pay for some new government agency to police the .com tld?

If you allow the creation of a .xxx tld and as a result the eventual mandatory segmentation of the internet based on content, you'll wake up one day in a world where the internet will no longer be the 'ultimate free press'.

Voltaire once wrote:

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

If you believe in freedom of thought, freedom of speech, than don't keep silent.

source: http://bit.ly/hfcBNW

[theloller]

Originally Posted by u-Bob

a demonstration

If you can't make it, simply tweet!

done that

tweeted

[Kiopa_Matt]

u-Bob, why waste your time on it? It's obviously already a done deal, and probably has been for months, if not years. .xxx will be coming.

PS. Protesting generally doesn't do shit. Best example I can think of is before the Iraq invasion in 2003. Unprecedented worldwide protests, but nobody in power gave a shit.

[u-Bob]

Originally Posted by Kiopa_Matt

u-Bob, why waste your time on it? It's obviously already a done deal, and probably has been for months, if not years. .xxx will be coming.

PS. Protesting generally doesn't do shit. Best example I can think of is before the Iraq invasion in 2003. Unprecedented worldwide protests, but nobody in power gave a shit.

It does not take a majority to prevail...but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in men's minds. -Samuel Adams

[vdbucks]

Originally Posted by u-Bob

It does not take a majority to prevail...but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in men's minds. -Samuel Adams

So long as you realize that big money wins, no matter what.

If you want to beat them, the only real way of doing so is to have more money. If you don't have more money, you're screwed.

Just take a good hard look at the US gov... it's run by wall street now... you think the icann is going to give a shit about a few protesters?

It's all about the money and who has more of it.. always has been, always will be.

[Nikki_Licks]

Originally Posted by u-Bob

simply send a strongly worded tweet or email

u-bob, I do not tweet, nor do I use facebook. Can you tell me where we are to send in any comments via email? I haven't seen any link and want to forward my comments in.

Thanks

[u-Bob]

Originally Posted by Nikki_Licks

u-bob, I do not tweet, nor do I use facebook. Can you tell me where we are to send in any comments via email? I haven't seen any link and want to forward my comments in.

Thanks

http://www.icann.org/en/contact/ (community feedback) (can also send a fax)

And it's always a good idea to post your opinion on domaining blogs or news sites that have articles about the .xxx tld.

During the comment periods, the ICM went to great lengths to pretend that they had our support. They even used polls and comments from random sites as "evidence". Having as much anti-.xxx posts out there as possible, makes things harder for the ICM.

[Nikki_Licks]

Originally Posted by u-Bob

http://www.icann.org/en/contact/ (community feedback) (can also send a fax)

And it's always a good idea to post your opinion on domaining blogs or news sites that have articles about the .xxx tld.

During the comment periods, the ICM went to great lengths to pretend that they had our support. They even used polls and comments from random sites as "evidence". Having as much anti-.xxx posts out there as possible, makes things harder for the ICM.

Thanks for the link. I wanted to be sure it got to the right place.

[Kiopa_Matt]

Originally Posted by u-Bob

It does not take a majority to prevail...but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in men's minds. -Samuel Adams

What can I say? Hope you win.

[Caligari]

bumped and tweeted

[baddog]

Originally Posted by Alprazolam

you guys need to stop wasting your time on the adult biz people and start focusing on getting the nutball religious people out there to picket. the fsc should be calling churches, shit joan irvine should be calling churches in the bay area and telling them that they are going to pass this and their kids are doomed. those nutcases live for shit like this. adult entertainment people are lazy and most of them are not too smart anyhow.

focus on the religious nuts if you want a real showing of anti .XXX people.

Joan Irvine is with ASACP, not FSC. One deals with .xxx the other does not.

That being said, I think I am going to San Francisco for a couple hours next week. Guess it is a good place to spend St Patrick's Day.

[davecummings]

Using the link U-Bob posted in Comment 25, I posted the below and DID hit the "Reply" button when ICANN subsequently sent me their follow-on email to confirm that I was the one sending the comment to them. Here's a copy/paste of my comment to ICANN:

---------------------------------------------------

" Subject: .xxx

Message: I own adult websites.

Please FULLY understand that most of the REAL stakeholders are STRONGLY against .xxx being approved.

Please insure that ICANN folks who might be biased in support of .xxx are not allowed to vote, and that they do not "lobby" other voters to approve the hated .xxx.

The "world" is watching, so I hope ICANN will do the right thing, namely DENY .xxx"

[davecummings]

Originally Posted by baddog

Joan Irvine is with ASACP, not FSC. One deals with .xxx the other does not.

That being said, I think I am going to San Francisco for a couple hours next week. Guess it is a good place to spend St Patrick's Day.

Glad you're gonna be up in SF --demonstrations against .xxx !!!!

Thanks,

[{Psycho}]

Too old story ... whats new man ...............

[baddog]

Originally Posted by davecummings

Glad you're gonna be up in SF --demonstrations against .xxx !!!!

Thanks,

Well, I was thinking I began my demonstration participation in The City. Might be the last one I participate in.

I wonder if they will have tear gas this time.

[Redrob]

I just booked my ticket to San Francisco so I'll be carrying a sign for sure.....................Fuck XXX!!

[davecummings]

Originally Posted by Redrob

I just booked my ticket to San Francisco so I'll be carrying a sign for sure.....................Fuck XXX!!

You and BadDog will be our heros!

[baddog]

Originally Posted by Redrob

I just booked my ticket to San Francisco so I'll be carrying a sign for sure.....................Fuck XXX!!

hmmm, was thinking of riding up. Might look at flight I guess.