Free speech coalition changed its point of view in regard to .xxx domain extension ?
 

I don't want to bash people who are "someone" in this industry, but it was obvious to me that the online adult industry is AGAINST the new suggested .xxx domain extension.
I alwas thought "Free Speech Coalition" was strongly against the idea of a specific "porn domain".
I made a post two days ago saying that you can officially submit to ICANN posts presenting arguments against this proposal.
But now i have just seen there a post saying:



Leaders in the Online Adult Industry Support .xxx

I hahahahaha this to communicate my support for the .xxx TLD proposal. I hahahahaha as an experienced member of the online Adult Industry and have been since 1995.

I currently own an Internet marketing company specializing in adult website marketing since 2001. Prior to that I was President of IGallery, as subsidiary of New Frontier media, a NASDAQ listed company from 1996 to 2001 and prior to that was VP of Marketing for Hustler launching its flagship site in 1995.

I am also a director of the Free Speech Coalition since 2001.

All these companies share one belief ... that child pornography is illegal, it is morally wrong and it should be stopped. This application demonstrates that belief and that the adult industry is prepared to both do something about child pornography and open up a dialogue with the broader Internet community.

.xxx offers an opportunity for the online adult industry act responsibly.

It provides a new forum and platform for the online adult industry to begin to self-organize and to develop their own credible and responsible business practices.

I have personally met with many of the leaders in the online adult community from around the world ... from Python Communications in Curacao ... to Netcollex in the UK ... to Hustler, Vivid, AVN and many many more have all demonstrated their support for this application.

In addition, there is great concern about the risks posed to the industry if .xxx was to ever become a generic TLD.

No other application has stronger industry support or as broad and diverse a community of International supporters from all impacted stakeholders.

Greg Dumas



why has it changed ? :helpme :helpme :helpme

DUMAS!!!!!!!!!

Take it back. Take it back before the damage is done!

Not many webmasters do care, i see.

Ok, my last post about it.

I have no idea what ICANN wants ( probably only the money ) or how serious are the guys behind the .xxx idea.
I am against this idea and from what i know so is still the majority of adult site owners. Not sure why FSC changed its mind, maybe Mr Fiction will enlighten me.

But IMO the main reason that .xxx won't be introdced, is that there is already the .xxx .New .Net domain.
Sure, now only about 20% of browsers support it and ICANN does not have to care about .New .Net at all, but what would happen if .xxx became a tld, when already "many" browsers have .NEW .NET plugins , that cause that when user types in www.sex.xxx he is forwarded to www.sex.xxx.new.net.

I honestly cannot imagine what would happen if ICANN introduced .xxx as an tld - having in mind both legal as well as technical issues.

But certainly my knowledge is limited on these subjects.

He is not the head of the Free Speech Coalition.

William Lyon was the executive director since the late 90's and after his resignation last year, Kat Sunlove took over.

Greg Dumas is a board member, there are a number of them and some do and some don't support .xxx. His personal opinion on any given issue is not the official position of the Free Speech Coalition.

I don't understand why he is talking about .xxx and child pornography together? .xxx does not help fight child porn. That's a ridiculous statement because it confuses two unrelated issues.

His post doesn't make much sense - is he promoting the people who want to run .xxx?

I'm all for it, as long as all porn sites aren't required to use it.

What's wrong with the current domain extensions?? I'm against it.

some of my points as to why . XXX is a bad idea, posted at ICANN's email board (supposedly those posts are read by the ICANN board):

http://forum.icann.org/lists/stld-rfp-xxx/msg00058.html



Fight the .$$$

Who the fuck voted those people the voice of the online industry. If .xxx happens first it will be voluntary then some law will be voted making it a must. Then plan on all isp's blocking those domains in the name of the children.They do this mark my words it will be the down fall of the adult online industry. Also one company would be controling our fate.

.xxx offers an opportunity for the online adult industry act responsibly.

It provides a new forum and platform for the online adult industry to begin to self-organize and to develop their own credible and responsible business practices.

Greg Dumas
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


I propose a NEW domain extension = .idiot

It will be required that all people (who make such statements as above) do so ONLY on a domain with the extension of .idiot

They will also be required to use a ".idiot" address for any Web Site with which they are associated. Failure to do so could lead to heavy fines and imprisonment.

First site will be = http://www.GregDumas.idiot

.idiot offers an opportunity for the online idiots to act responsibly.

It provides a new forum and platform for the online idiots to begin to self-organize and to develop their own credible and responsible business practices.

It also provides a forum, which will keep the idiots away from the rest of us. Thank you!

I see a lot of greed, lawsuits, upleasantness, and unecessary spending in it's future.

BTW - what would be the 'pecking order for obtaining the top domains? sex.xxx for instance..... ?

Just don't see how this will stop child porn? It would take years on a voluntary basis for .xxx to be the norm for porn websites .

I think the .xxx domain is a great idea. It would make it very easy for people, isps, and search engines to filter out adult results for people that don't want to see them. A little industry self-regulation would help our reputation.

I would only buy .xxx domains even if it wasn't a legal requirement.

It really is not very hard to see why .xxx could never work.

Furthermore, the ONLY way it could have any effect is if it was made a "legal requirement" but then you are left with all the obvious questions which make it clearly impossible anyway.

According to Robert's Rules of Order:

Motion to have all Rictor's domains filtered out by all major ISP's and search engines, with the intent to test the effects on income of this .xxx proposal.

Is there a second?

Start saving up your money then.. at a price tag of $70 - $75 per .XXX domain.






http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5176620.html

An excerpt from the article:

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

Under his proposal, submitted last week to the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), .xxx domain names would be sold for $70
to $75 each. Child pornography would be verboten, but pretty much anything
else would be permissible, Lawley said. "Apart from child pornography, which
is completely illegal, we're really not in the content-monitoring business."

Instead, Lawley and his partners are in the business to make money. A report
from Reuters Business Insight in February 2003 calculated that sex
represented two-thirds of all online content revenue in 2001, and that it
had ballooned to a $2.5 billion industry since then. Lawley estimates that
25 percent of all Internet search queries are related to sex and that over a
million adult domain names exist. Owning the rights to sell pieces of .xxx
real estate, he concluded, would be a perfect way to make money off of
consumers' insatiable appetite for online raunch and ribaldry.

Free-expression issues

The way the proposed .xxx registry would work is twofold. Lawley's company,
ICM Registry, would handle the technical aspects of running the master
database of .xxx sex sites. For its troubles, it would charge $60 a domain
name and let resellers add their own markup of perhaps $10 to $15 per
domain.
-------------------------------------------------------




Fight the Cha-Ching!

it always ends up being a VERY few that control things that have power to influence great numbers of people, being the Net or any other potentially massively influential media...

it's only a matter of time....




"WINSTON WAS HERE"

I'm hoping that it goes through. I bought 10 sweet .xxx extensions a few months back. :winkwink:

me2 :thumbsup

I think there should be a .xxx TLD avaliable, but I dont think that porn sites should be forced to move to it.

Good point... ALOT of people have the .new.net extensions installed, even if they don't know it.

Yeah, i agree... But new.net kind of fucked that up too.

1) Since CP sites won't be allowed to get a .XXX domain, how does that really stop CP? It doesn't. The argument is that it can be an easy filter to block all adult sites for children.

This approach ONLY makes sense if .XXX was passed as a law. If it was voluntary, as many statements from pro-.XXX supporters have said, then this plan does not make sense.

It has to be made a law, otherwise rogue .COM adult sites couldn't be shutdown.... not to mention the international ramifications.

www.icra.org has a voluntary way that a website can mark ITSELF as being adult.

ICRA filtering is built into Internet Explorer today. So any website can use ICRA labelling today to do VOLUNTARY filtering.



2) That's the plan from the Bush administration.



3) yes, but it wouldn't be IFFOR, the registrar for .XXX, it will be the law that is passed by pro .XXX supporters to lobby congress, which means it's the US Gov't that would be in control.



Fight the Conspiracy Theories!

You may find that you wasted your money.

If ICANN approves .XXX, they could end up voiding all the New.net .xxx domains.

One of the plans from .XXX is to give the .COM owners the first right to purchase the .XXX equivalent.

So if you have been cybersquatting on some choice .XXX names right now, be on the look out if those domains you have purchased hold up IF .XXX is approved.



Fight the Eminent Domain!

Funny...

I just got a letter from FSC on Friday.
No where listed is Mr. Dumas on the board Members and if he is a director they might wanna think about just removing em from the FSC altogether with drunk antics like that above I read.

YES!
Make it binding for 20 years as a test.:glugglug

Is it true?
I've heard such opinions here, but I thought these are just opinions by peoplel who don't care that much about it and share only their point of view.
When you are saying it, it seems like you got it from a better source.

But would it be fair?
It means giving advantage to .com in favor of .net for example.
Now .com is the default extensin but there is no legal rule saying that, it is only the market that caused that, no law.
You can still operate a paysite, or huge TGP or whatever under .net ( or even .info, .biz, or even .org although .org is indended for organisations ).
It wouldn't be fair from their point of view if .com oenwers would automatically be able to register .xxx equvalents.
On the other hand, it also woul not be fair if people running popular ( but no trademarked, like the majority ) .com pornsites would have no chance in getting .xxx.
In that case i could register thier .xxx names, without breaking any laws and profit from them, especially if it should happen that this extension becomes mandatory.
But i doubt it will happen, it simply interestes me, and yeah, this whole situation worries me a little, sine i think it is a real danger to this industry....I am not afraid so much sicne i think it is an unlikely scenario, but still a little worried, that is why i started my posts.

Yup, from one of the horse's mouth.


Without allowing someone with a .com to get their .xxx equivalent, it would be opening up a bigger pandora's box then exists today with trademark infringements.

Imagine if someone grabbed sex.xxx

You think gary at sex.com is going to just sit there and allow it? He'd probably end up suing the registrar, etc...

It's a nice "marketing" tactic, to allow the .com owner to get their .xxx equivalent.

So if ICANN appoves it, expect a wave of marketing that will target webmasters to sign up for the "voluntary" .xxx extension.

As you have seen from the guy who runs the .XXX extension, the price per domain could be upwards of $75.

Most webmasters have several if not hundreds of domains as either websites, doorways, gateways, etc.... so cost alone will be the first barrier.



Fight the Hair Extensions!

That is interesting to hear, yet does it mean that assuming I own just a small linklist let's say nakedpussy.com, will i be automatically offered the .xxx equivalent?

And I also wonder why the unfair advantage to .com owners.
Gary Kremen owns both sex.com and sex.net, but i can imagine them being in different hands...and both owners would certainly like to get sex.xxx ( who wouldn't )...

If sex.com owners gets sex.xxx by default, then simply sex.net owner could sue the registry etc...

BTW, I also fail to see the reasons behind .post, .mail, .asia, .mobi, .jobs etc
Who needs such extensions? Who needs new extensions at all :question

Which planet is that support on? Mars?

I think there is another "application" which has stronger support.
Acacia, everyone here loves them right?

Anyone who lobbies for .XXX is doing us all a great disservice. It's
likely that if it's ever adopted it will be used to caral the adult
industry and make us easier to target both individually and as a
group. Many different laws and stratigies have been put in place
to try to do just this and .XXX would be used much the same way.

-Ben

Here is the application by IFFOR (the proposed registrar for . XXX):

http://www.icann.org/tlds/stld-apps-19mar04/xxx.htm


If you want to send your thoughts about .XXX to ICANN (which supposedly will be reading them), you can send an email to:

[email protected]

Email messages are posted for public viewing at:
http://forum.icann.org/lists/stld-rfp-xxx

Please keep your email/post civil since many people do read that board.



Fight the Message Bored!

While its good to see a few handful people pay attention to this most important issue, it is also sad to see how many haven't.


The people behind the proposal for .XXX have every business right to form the registry. More power to them. If someone wanted to start .$$$ or .idiot as one poster suggested, more power to them as well.

Where it becomes questionable, is when a normally voluntary system of domain name registration chases legislation to make it a law.

Combined with a high selling point per domain, it's becomes very apparent that this isn't about "saving children" as much as lining the wallet and all about bizness.

Who is going to take a stand? The few that have posted in here don't amount to action.

Mr. Dumas, an FSC director, has written:
"I have personally met with many of the leaders in the online adult community from around the world ... from Python Communications in Curacao ... to Netcollex in the UK ... to Hustler, Vivid, AVN and many many more have all demonstrated their support for this application. "



He's saying that the "leaders" of the Adult Industry have signed on to the .XXX idea.

This is exactly what IFFOR needs to get their approval from ICANN, to be able to demonstrate community support for the proposed TLD.

Who will oppose it?

It has been said in prior posts, that FSC would not allow this to happen. There was the voting previously by FSC members to shoot down the idea months ago, but haven't seen any postings or articles to the contrary, and instead, we have now all seen a director of FSC publically proclaim support for .XXX

What about IFA (Larry's Walter's organization) ?

What about IMPA?


With final deliberation in August (i believe), there really isn't that much time. And besides, there seems to be "industry leader" support for this proposal.


So all of those that oppose it (like me), it would appear that we must be the minority.. just a bunch of conspiracy theorists, chicken little cheerleaders, and people with too much time on their hands.

It has already been demonstrated through this whole Acacia mess that there are "leaders" who will step up and fight, and there are "leaders" who will make "business decisions".

In the middle, lies the masses of webmasters who stand apathetically with their heads in the sands.

A small group of people have the power, only because the mindless masses allow it.

Where was the rally from the industry against Acacia? Almost non-existant except for a few.

Get your favorite scent of lube ready, more things will come down on the biz, and you might as well be ready to take it in if you aren't ready to take a stand.


Fight the Soapbox!

"In the middle, lies the masses of webmasters who stand apathetically with their heads in the sands."

Well thats the problem these days aint it?

American Value system is being driven by money interests these days on several fronts.

i think it is too late for comments on that forum:

"30 April 2004

ICANN has extended its Public Comment period for all of the new sTLD applications until 23.59 UTC 14 May. Interested parties are further encouraged to submit comments."

The U.S. doesn't have a patent on apathy. The prior art is found in all countries and in all races throughout time.


Fight the Analogies!

So where do we send comments now then?

Can't have this one moron speaking for us all. I doubt any of the
stuff he's posted is even true, I can't understand so many big
adult companies agreeing with him unless it was "oh yeah, get
off the phone now I'm busy".

"Will you be offered the domain matching your" Yes I'm sure you
would, by an anonymous spam bot telling you to register it for
$70+.

-Ben

If anyone is an FSC card carrying member (and i believe there are only like 900 of you) and oppose .XXX (which most of the members did at prior FSC vote), contact FSC and Kat and see what their position is on this.

If FSC works by vote, then surely it cannot be that FSC supports .XXX after the membership shot it down.

Surely, the FSC membership had already spoken that .XXX was a bad idea, and therefore FSC would be in the position as the "industry trade association" to be able to lobby ICANN that .XXX is a bad idea.



Fight the Everyone Has Their Price!

I dont think .xxx would withstand a first amendment challenge as a law. Although anymore the Supreme Court dosent enforce the consutiution anymore anyway.

And lobbying ICANN is also a bad idea. ICANN does exactly what they want to and they dont give a damn about anyone else other than themselves. Sort of like Network Soultions.

Actually I AM a card carrying member of the FSC and have been for several years.

There is a board meeting in a couple days in LA and I spoke with someone on the board about this - he said he will bring it up at the meeting. I sent him this link. We'll see what happens as a result.

apparently they still accept new comments on that forum :)

I would like to throw out this question for comment:

If the proposed .XXX is truly voluntary (like any other TLD), and ICANN approves it, what is the harm of a business like ICM Registry charging whatever they want for a domain?

How many rushed out to get a .biz?

Wouldn't economics determine .XXX's fate?

This is of course assuming no law is passed, but given some discussions with some people, it would seem that such a law would never make it.. if anything, the ACLU would surely have issues.

Point #2 (coming full circle to the original thread post):

So if FSC did reverse its position and many other organizations and companies supported .XXX (and some may be receiving money for it in the forms of sales commissions, contributions, etc)...what's the harm?




Fight the Intellectual Debate!

All adult sites should be identified as .xxx, I get spam thinking its real impt. mail and it's just spam porn, at least it would waste less of people time..

To get rid of all those viagra and drug spams, then there should be a .drug extension :)


Fight the .!

FightThisPatent - is there any update on that ?