FSC Sends Letter to GAC, ICANN Board
 

FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION
January 28, 2011
Contact: Diane Duke
[email protected]

FSC Sends Letter to GAC, ICANN Board

CANOGA PARK, Calif. ? Free Speech Coalition (FSC) today sent a letter to the Board of Directors of Internet regulator ICANN and to its Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), urging the Board not approve Internet registrar ICM?s application for the proposed .XXX sponsored top level domain (sTLD).

?This is an extremely comprehensive and powerful document,? FSC Executive Director Diane Duke said. ?FSC thanks Jeffrey Douglas, Tom Hymes and especially Reed Lee who worked long hours ensuring not only that all topics were covered, but also that they were meticulously referenced.?

FSC has opposed the adoption of .XXX domains for adult online business since 2004. The adult industry trade association is asking that the ICANN Board and GAC will consider the document prior to the ICANN Board meeting scheduled to be held in March, in San Francisco.

When it rejected ICM?s .XXX sTLD proposal in 2007, the ICANN Board articulated five reasons, virtually all of which related to concerns that had been expressed by ICANN?s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). After that decision, ICM Registry invoked ICANN?s process of an Independent Review Panel (IRP). Utilizing the information provided by ICM?s application and testimony that included ICM representation ? but no adult entertainment industry representatives ? the IRP determined that ICM had met the ?sponsorship community? requirements for the sponsored TLD.

At the last ICANN Board meeting held in December, the Board expressed intent to move into a contract with ICM for a .XXX sTLD but, as required by ICANN?s by-laws, must consider GAC advice. The .XXX consideration now moves to consultations between the ICANN Board and the GAC.

On a number of occasions, the GAC has voiced concern over a .XXX sTLD. FSC?s letter focuses primarily on the context of those concerns raised by GAC. The GAC took issue with the promises included in ICM?s proposal, challenging ICM?s ability to follow through with those commitments.

ICM claims that .XXX will help combat child pornography and protect vulnerable communities. ICM asserts that $10 of every $60 registration will go to combat child pornography. However in its letter, FSC documents where that very same $10 has been promised to help the adult industry for everything from 2257 to piracy. Moreover FSC quotes the founder of Safekids.com ? one of the oldest and most enduring web sites for Internet safety ? stating, ?As an Internet safety advocate, my concern about .XXX is that it could give parents a false sense of security.?

Also in its letter, FSC pointed out the promises to protect intellectual property seem to extend more to mainstream companies than the businesses ICM purports to represent. ICM?s ?Sunrise for .XXX? initial rights protection document offers domain parking options to only non-adult companies. The letter challenges ICM?s intent to ?take appropriate measures to restrict access to illegal and offensive content,? pointing out that what is legal and offensive varies drastically from country to country.

Finally FSC addresses the issue of ?sponsorship community? clearly documenting where the adult industry and ICANN were deceived by the use of ?pre-reservations? as a sign of industry support.

###

The Free Speech Coalition is the national trade organization to the adult entertainment industry. Its mission is to lead, protect and support the growth and well-being of the adult entertainment community.

Bump for some good work.

very nice, lets hope it works

Got a link to the actual letter per chance?

The letter will be posted on ICANN in the next couple of days. As soon as a link is available, I'll post the link.

this is good.

Late is better than never, but shouldn't "an extremely comprehensive and powerful document" have been sent a long time ago?

By chance is it one of those letters where after you read it, you die 7 days later? Because that's what is needed right now.

it just doesn't end this .xxx bullshit?

Fuck the ICM. Fuck the .xxx tld. Fuck anyone who plans on registering a .xxx domain. Fuck any registrar that even thinks about offering .xxx registrations.

I have posted a link to the letter:

FSC Letter to ICANN and GAC 1-28-11.pdf

:thumbsupExcellent letter and to the point!!:thumbsup

I hate to say this, but that is way too long. ICANN Board will skim through it at best.

I read through parts of it and it appear a bit weak, phrases like: adult industry professionals are concerned about how much it would cost them to protect their

there should be more phrases like adult industry professionals are concerned about the financial hardship resulting from...... / unrealistic financial burden / forced donations to unregulated private organizations lead to biased opinions and corruption / separating a legal business from it's peers is first step of censorship / forcing consumers to be labelled with XXX may not be in the best interest of the consumers / unwanted analytics of online private behaviors / habits now available to ISP's, government agencies, employers.

Not a bad letter but I think it lacks the "power phrases"

Still good to see someone is doing something :thumbsup

No it is not!

This is not Cliff Notes; this is the real thing. The document's' power is in the arguments; not, using "power phrases."

Obviously my idea was not just to list them as that but incorporate them into full sentences to put emphasis on the actual problems surrounding the XXX, I believe the arguments is getting deluded as the letter is written more as a story teller mode rather than focusing on actual facts.

The power of the document is not to say please listen what I have to say but it's to say I know it, you know it, it's wrong

Funny, that is close to the exact message that I got from reading the letter.

Nice to see this letter go out....great work :thumbsup

Bump

Is there a html version?
 

You have that in a html (non-pdf) version?

Ron

No, I have only a pdf version.

Sadly, I figured that.

Why only PDF?

I've submitted numerous comments over the years to ICANN in plain text with no problems.

Anyways, in my view, the biggest reason .XXX is spinning its wheels are the following issues that at the global level are challenging to say the least:

* What defines an adult? Age 16, 18, 21, etc? And/or some other attributes?

* What is considered sexually explicit for children?

* Who decides what content belongs in .XXX?

* Will .XXX be legally required? And/or required by contract? Ie. will credit card processors, such as CCBill, require adult sites to operate completely within .XXX?

* Does .XXX, in essence, become a government endorsement of sexually explicit content? This is a biggie with many citizen / religious groups; many of them are against .XXX too.

Does the FSC letter mention, or at least, allude to, these issues? If not, it should, because those above points are the main reasons .XXX has remained bogged down and going nowhere.

Ron

Bump for night shift

Why do you have a problem with the pdf format?

Pure and simple Icann are going to bank with the dot-xxx, and we all know the impact it is going to have on porn!

My question is why the fuck does everyone wait for someone else to fight a battle that will have a major impact on the industry we all work in?

This move makes good business sense to Icann:2 cents: Not only will they bank in a big way but Icann and the asacp win and look like the good guys for cleaning up the internet.

Money is a very pursuasive element, the green eyed monster has pushed through alot of bad decisions in this world. The adult industry currently generates big bucks for Icann through the various adult registrations of extensions such as the .com, .net, .org etc etc and they will make alot of money out of the proposed $60 registration fee of dot-xxx.

I have worked in a few large organisations in my past and anytime large scale complaints start flowing in the people who are paid to make decisions have to start thinking:2 cents:

You may think your opinion won't make a difference but if enough people started flooding Icann with messages it will soon cascade it's way to the people who need to listen.

If everyone on this board who is against the dot-xxx took 5 minutes of their time to write a quick message to Icann it could make a little difference, heck even if it doesn't what does 5 minutes of your life mean in the scheme of things.

Icann will only bank on the dot-xxx if the adult community supports the extention. If Icann thought that over the years the adult community would rebel and that hardly any dot-xxx would be registered the green eyed monster might again come into play.

If we all sent just a quick message with our personal opinion on why this extention is a bad idea and to clarify that we will not register or adopt the extention if it is introduced you never know it might get them to rethink.

A few messages won't show up on the radar but a shit load will start making the mother fucker bleep:1orglaugh

If anyone thinks like me that it can't hurt to try, the form is very simple and can be found below:

http://www.icann.org/en/contact/

This might have been posted before, I didn't have the time to search through the forum so apologies if this was a wasted read.

Thinking about it my above post probably doesn't have any relevance because I think Icann would be happy to corner porn and wouldn't care about the consequence their decision had to the adult industry:(

Time to twitter against the .xxx proposal: http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showthread.php?t=1008151 (fucking-around-and-business-discussion/1008151-twitter-xxx-tld.html )

I just read, and re-read, the FSC letter to ICANN; then, my mind kept thinking-and-feeling "As an FSC member I am thankfully indebted to the fine people at FSC".

Actually, IMHO, even those who aren't FSC members should be thankful, too (and SHOULD become FSC members immediately by going to http://www.freespeechcoalition.com/joinmembership.html ). Or, contact membership@freespeechcoalition , or, [email protected] to join up!