.XXX On The Way
 

The bad news just keeps piling up:

http://www.avnonline.com/index.php?P...tent_ID=228865

I'm betting that by this time next year we'll be talking about some government-led attempt to force adult sites onto .XXX domain names. It won't take long for some politician somewhere to get the bright idea that forcing all adult sites to use .XXX would somehow "protect children." And since the people behind .XXX appear to be falsely suggesting that .XXX somehow combats child pornography if the AVN article is to be believed (how it manages THAT little task I'd really like to know), it's clear that people are ALREADY using .XXX for their own selfish purposes.

There is NOTHING that .XXX gives us that we couldn't have accomplished just as easily with voluntary ratings. Since most webmasters will choose to stick with .COM because that's where the traffic is, there will be just as much porn outside .XXX as there ever was... meaning this does NOTHING to protect children and does NOTHING to create a safe harbor for children. And even after the government tries to force all American webmasters onto .XXX domain names, through direct legislation or through pressure, there will STILL be plenty of international porn on .COM domain names, and children STILL will not be protected. It's dishonest to say the least to promote .XXX as something that will protect children or combat child pornography. Give me a break. Some people clearly want to make money selling pverpriced domain names to the adult industry and are trying to market it as something other than what it is... a money grab.

This is a HORRIBLE development for the industry. And since the FSC voted AGAINST supporting .XXX, I wonder who all these free speech groups are that supposedly supported .XXX according to the comments from the people who will be cashing in on this little business venture.

Let's look at some of these quotes:

" ?Ideally, those who choose to register their .xxx domain will belong to a more responsible group of adult webmasters. They will have a well-funded, well-respected organization to speak on their behalf as well as an established set of responsible business practices to live up to,? Hendeles says."

So... someone with a .COM domain name is suddenly less responsible than someone who pays these people money for an expensive .XXX domain name? Interesting angle.

" ?The application is aimed at creating an identifiable Web area that will help battle child pornography, while at the same time enabling responsible adult-entertainment website operators to self-organize and self-label on a voluntary basis,? says Stuart Lawley, president and chairman of ICM Registry."

Hmmm... that "responsible" angle is there again. But how does this make a webmaster more responsible? FACT: Internet Explorer currently supports certain voluntary rating systems, meaning someone can ALREADY make it easy for parents to filter out their sites. No need to pay someone for a .XXX domain name to do it. It's free. And will someone PLEASE tell me how this combats child pronography? Or are we just making this shit up because it SOUNDS good? What a joke!

" ?It took us three years to get the support of the industry and the free speech groups. We had to deal with parents and children?s groups that have their own issues. Obviously, we had to deal with trademark and free speech groups to make sure they are both secure and protected,? Jason Hendeles, vice president of strategic business development for ICM Registry, tells AVNOnline.com."

Other than ASACP, which I understand never got the support of its Advisory Counsel when agreeing to support .XXX (perhaps someone from ASACP can confirm this if that's right or if it's not explain otherwise), which "industry groups" supported this .XXX money grab? Which "free speech groups" supported this? Interesting.

I'm not sure why they can't just be honest. They want to make money selling .XXX domain names, and they wanted to sell them on a "managed" level so that other companies couldn't share in the profits. No buying a .XXX domain name for a good price from your favorite registrar... they wanted FULL control over this little cash cow. So please don't insult our intelligence with claims that this somehow combats child pornography or was brought on with the support of the industry.

And while we can all HOPE that .XXX remains voluntary, we will all know who to blame if legislation suddenly surfaces attempting to compel us onto .XXX domain names.

If you don't follow the rules, can they suspend your domain?

Very solid points, Connor. Thanks! :thumbsup

I have always been against .XXX domain names, but the dishonest way they're going about marketing them right from the start is just too much to take.

Wow, this is turning into a Witch Hunt :mad:

.xxx names suck!! They are just a waste a way from whoever runs them to get rich.

I'll get some

Everyone is entitled to spend their money how they see fit. If you think giving over your money for a .XXX domain name is a good thing then by all means, knock yourself out.

But trying to say that this somehow protects children or combats child porn is lower than what the government claims about 2257 protecting children. And when some congressman decides that compelling all of us to use .xxx domain names is a good idea, remember that you helped fund the organization that made it possible. I'd love to find a list of all these people who supposedly supported .XXX domain names. We've been told Hustler supported this... I wonder if Flynt has any comments on that? Which other big industry players supported this? We ought to know that so we know who to thank when this shit goes bad.

I think that if they are going to do this, they should contact the owners of the .com name, and ask if they want their sites with the .xxx

I would buy all of ours, just to be able to have them for when the government decides that we NEED them.

AVN supported it

Anyone knows anything or has any guess on what they will do with people who already own .xxx domains?

Actually, I asked Paul about this claim and he says that is absolutely not true.

That's going to depend on who you bought it from. Several groups were selling porn only domain names, but only ONE seems to have gotten their application approved.

As for who gets domain names like porn.xxx, bondage.xxx, etc... well gee, I'm guessing that privledge will go to the best-connected companies. I guess we'll soon find out.

Well, that's how rules are being played here... Why don't we just try to follow them..

Funny I recall taking Paul to lunch at Abe's Deli one day and he asked me what he should do and told me how much they'd stand to make per domain-

He also told me that Bill Margold was an asshole that day- ask him if he remembers that conversation
DAHHHLING.

:-))

do you know what is that "ONE" group?

thanks

He'll also tell you that Jen was fired for "just cause" and that she'll get everything owed to her as well like he did to me on May 22nd of last year by email...

He'll also tell you that he never told luke ford I was committing "career suicide" by leaking stories to him that were false about Jen's case when I in essence I never leaked any INFO WHATSOEVER-

That was back when he denied that he was being sued- then the next day he had his paperwork.

:pimp

Yes. http://www.icmregistry.com/

Shall we continue Aly ?

Well, hopefully Paul made the right decision and did not support this. Paul isn't the only one who was offered money per domain name to support this thing... other industry groups were given the same offer. I know the FSC voted down the offer, as did another industry free speech group. I only know of one industry group who supported this, but don't know if they were offered anything or not for that support. All we can do is guess.

I would like to say however that AVN never did get it pushed through asd you can see - and withdrew from the entire notion of it when they saw how much heat it was getting and how little they understood about it in my opinion

Frankly, no. You have a personal axe to grind, Kevin, so it's hard for me to view your statements as objective, constructive, or remotely useful to anyone.

oh, but what I ment is what happens to people who got their domains
through registrars like http://www.new.net/
Do they get to keep it or it will start off clean?

SPIN IT ANY WAY U LIKE-
You are the one who is in the dark-
I am not.

They can try to ruin my credibility but everyone knows I get the straight poop.
And it's stinks.

My personal axe to grind is with all the liars in this business- Paul is only one of them in my opinion - there are many, many more to be exposed in the coming months

i am quite sure they wont keep them

btw i seriously wonder how the registration process wil look like...

I would certainly guess that if you got a .XXX domain name from anyone but ICM Registry then you're shit out of luck.

Then hopefully you can help me expose this .XXX shit for what it is... you game for that?

"CANN has also recently entered into commercial and technical negotiations with the following additional candidate registries, .CAT, .POST & .MOBI."
from ICANN site


There is also some info about .mobi TLD
http://www.domainbank.net/mobi/index.cfm

"Sunrise Period

There will be a .mobi Sunrise Period. This will give trademark owners, with trademarks applied for prior to March 10, 2004, a chance to register their trademarks in the .mobi sTLD on a first come first serve basis. Mobi JV will require documentation of the trademark. Trademark owners may choose to register and use the .mobi domain name or simply to protect their brand from ownership by another. No timeframe has been given as to the start of the Sunrise Period at this time. "

I wonder if they will do the same with .xxx

i am not getting involved-
I have enough issues to deal with these days

Yeah, everything points to that situation

i remember the .info 'sunrise period' from 4 years ago - it was COMPLETE FIASCO and CHEATERS PARADISE :mad:

Sorry to hear that... your help would have been valuable.

Maybe it's just me, but somehow I don't trust a company that claims .XXX somehow combats child pornography (would still love to hear how) to be dishing out the most valuable domain names in a fair manner. So I think you're definitely right on to question how all of this will work.

a fucking men

I bought a bunch of those xxx domains a couple years ago and they never went live with it.

.xxx is a ripoff

:1orglaugh Never heard that before. Love it. :thumbsup

I think a better alternative would be a .kids TLD, whose sites are subject to a strict domain registration TOS. This way, there will be a "safe zone" for those who wish to be exposed to a narrow slice of the internet. Trying to restrict pornography, or any other objectionable form of content, is against the principles of free information flow on which the internet was founded.

this isnt about kids its about money and unfortunately most who we think are allies really would sell us out in a minute .

Go get 'em KB!

Fyi

http://uspto.gov "XXX" Issued Live Trademark Held by http://XPays.com

http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?r...entry=78127349

it won't be the government ghettoizing the adult internet with .xxx - it will be the credit card companies, if anybody, who have the ability to say "all adult sites billed by visa are required to use .xxx blah blah blah". Visa and mc make their own rules unlike the gov't who has to deal with pesky issues like free speech.

Post courtesy of:

http://XPays.com

Some people see this as protecting children, even though each new TLD brings hundreds of millions in new domain registrations. The people pushing the .xxx TLD have all the hysterical parents behind them, which amounts to basically free publicity on a "webmaster responsibility" platform.


Ugh :Oh crap

I highly doubt that because if that was the case they would be cheap $10 a domain not 60 to 75 . If everybody is so crazy about protecting kids how come no one ever came out with a kids only browser thats only sees .sites with a special kid meta tag. I will tell you why because kids are the excuse which is sad

That's an EXCELLENT point... far easier to make .XXX essentially forced on us if you somehow get Visa and MC on board. Gee, I wonder how much money these .XXX people would make if Visa somehow decided that they were only going to process for adult sites on .XXX domain names? And of course if this damn domain name extension hadn't gone through in the first place, we wouldn't be worrying about this at all since Visa can't force ICANN to create an adult-only domain name extension. I'd REALLY like to know which companies put us in this mess.

I agree with you 100%.

Great comments, but more should have been done on ICANN's public forum over the proposed TLD at the time rather than now, after the fact.

I made my comments in this May 13, 2003 post. I included several links along with my thoughts:

http://forum.icann.org/lists/stld-rfp-xxx/msg00053.html


Fight the nothing more to say!

Geezus Christ....


XBIZ

I happen to know Jason from way back and he wanted me to get involved with backing this a while ago-

I just never saw the intrinsic value for webmasters here-
Jason is a very smart guy, but rallying webmasters to get behind this is an arduous task that is insurmountable

and away we go

Completely agree.