.XXX, .KIDS, and .$$$ TLDs
 

from my latest Fight the Blog post: (click the link to view whole article)

[snippet]

ICM/IFFOR did have some merits in their ideas of .XXX about making some rules and guidelines for its use, but if someone is going to tell adult what to do, its better if it came from adult.

I believe that some trade organization could put in the application to run a .XXX or .PORN and become the registry. Through advertising, they could build up the idea that the TLD is the "official" websites for adult content.



Fight the click challenged!

why do we need to see so many threads about the same shit

try reading my blog post and you will see its new shit.


read there, discuss here....


Fight the cliff notes!

Brandon can post whatever the fuck he wants, whenever the fuck he wants to, Mr c0py.

.gofuckyourself :)

didn't say he couldn't

.GFY!


board members could have their own domains..

JuicyDLinks.gfy



Fight the domain grabs and the reach arounds!

Nobody is going to do anything about it. That is the industry way. Sure, a few will fight, but most will do nothing and bitch when they get fucked.

I wouldn't totally agree with your point of view.

Through the various *few* that rung the bell, we did get over 1,000 posts to the ICANN open comment board.

I had a pretty long list of companies taking a public stand that I submitted to ICANN prior to the vote.

Lots of other people make some noise. Hustler delivered a letter from Flynt that he was opposed.

This ICANN vote, no one in adult could do anything about... it was up to the ICANN members to vote.

What happens now that the rules are being lifted, is where adult can decide to try and be in the driver's seat of its destiny, or sitting on the side waiting for the crashes to occur.

Fight the NASCAR analogies!

It seems to me the whole .anything tld's could make .xxx a non issue. When there is .porn, .sex, .fuck .ass .porno, etc, xxx will just be another drop in the bucket.

true. personally, i don't trust .biz and .info domains

consumers will get that same feeling with all the potential adult TLD, that they would just stick with .COM or maybe .CUM :winkwink:

Fight the .LOL !

I was amazed how many people sent mail about the last .xxx try.

I think it will happen again.

Nothing left to fight about. The "sponsored commnity" TLD with IFFOR as the solution was the contested part... that was struck down.. so we had "won".

Now, with no such restrictions, .XXX will be just like a .biz and they can do whatever they want


Fight the make .love not .war !

The full story for those that are click challenged:

XXX, .KIDS, and .$$$ TLDs
Jun.26.2008

ICANN voted today to open up the domain namespace to allow anyone to submit an application to create their own TLD.

For an application fee of around $50k-$100K, plus proof of technical ability to manage the DNS servers, companies can start carving up their domain real estate space on the internet.

This naturally allows .XXX to be closer to reality. I have said from the beginning, if there were no "sponsored community" aspect to the TLD, no need for an IFFOR, there would be fuss about .XXX It would be no different than .BIZ or .INFO more power to those that register those domains,

So I would expect .XXX or .SEX or .PORN to be popping up next year, once ICANN figures out the rules to do this.

ICM/IFFOR did have some merits in their ideas of .XXX about making some rules and guidelines for its use, but if someone is going to tell adult what to do, its better if it came from adult.

I believe that some trade organization could put in the application to run a .XXX or .PORN and become the registry. Through advertising, they could build up the idea that the TLD is the "official" websites for adult content.

The registry would make an incredible amount of money that could go directly towards fighting against bad laws.

This registry would be a for-profit organization that would be overseen by the non-profit.

With official sanctioning of the TLD, it would at least help to give some means of self (or imposed) regulations, but done so by keepers that have the adult industries best interest at heart, rather than the focus on the wallet.

Personally, I hope to get my ventures going into high gear, so that I can sponsor the .KIDS TLD application and make that a white-label approach to truly protecting kids.

Web browsers and ISP can be setup such that only .KIDS domains would be seen. This is how you protect kids, not a black-list approach.

Fight the .GREED!

I feel the same way... In fact, I almost feel that it was smart for ICANN to do what they did as it can make it impracticle for their to be a porn "ghetto"... There will be a free for all on various porn extensions.. Since it takes governement a long time to do anything, by the time they get around to even thinking about sticking porn on one extension, there will be so many porn tlds it will become impossible to do...

.XXX or .kids will not happen because no one can feasibly act as a content arbiter, infact expect ICANN to actually BAN those types of TLDs when they open up the process

they wont allow .sex, .porn etc.

The tin foil conspiracy theory is that once the first adult specific TLD is created, that ICANN could move to clean up the .COM space by requiring all adult content to move off of it to some other TLD. (first amendment free speech would probably not apply)

Then, they can move on to hate speech, sex education, and stuff that is derogatory against China ;)


No matter the case, who gets the .XXX domain will be the nightmare for the registry to resolve, as the .COM owner is not necessary the shoe-in, because there are other country TLDs out there, as well as .NET


Fight the .whatever!

I don't know, what if I don't like you and you register a domain in the TLD I run the nameservers for - I could dead zone all your domains and you'd be out of business. At least with .COM theres alot of money at stake so there's equality by default, but a new TLD although new and shiny, could fuck over alot of people at the right time.

or what if a country doesn't want to accept the adult/porn TLD to their name servers and therefore shutting off everyone in that country from being able to reach the website, unless they used an external DNS server.


Fight the cock block!

Isn't that life in general, honey?...

.cunt
.pussy
.dick
.crack
.ass
.balls
where and when will the madness end?

Right on:thumbsup

brandon,

i think the part about someone other than "an organization interested in money" setting up the .porn or .xxx or .sex is not going to happen. it's nice to think about, but its been clear on some of the last crusades that we've participated in that people in this industry, (even people you think you know), are clearly out for themselves. once i accepted that i was no longer stressed and i am able to be healthy and just focus on making money for the people who pay me to make them money instead of trying to help out an industry that doesn't care for itself.

i stick by my belief that this industry is full of me me me's and no we we we's, including the organizations that are supposedly out there for us. no offense to anyone, but when there's money to be made, someone is going to make it. most of the time it is at the "expense of", instead of the "defense of" the industry. i really would like to see someone surprise me though.

with that said, i will support you on the .kids thing. i believe wholeheartedly that the stance it would take has far more potential than "ghettoizing" the industry by mandating the occupancy of adult material to a tld of its own. i believe that the government will not follow the wishes of ICM into forcing adult content to ever be hosted on .xxx or any adult tld anyhow. overseas compliance is not going to happen and unless you can effectively remove all adult content from .com i don't ever see it happening. they aren't stupid, and they like tax money. mandate .xxx and they can say goodbye to billions in tax dollars that they enjoy right now. trust me, the government is watching all of this very closely. the intrawebs is big money, and no one loves it more than the business of government.

the opinion expressed herein is mine and mine alone. like it or not a lot is going to change.

thanks for keeping everyone informed.

fight the people in the biz that are already looking for ways to screw everyone else.

:2 cents:

its going to be a huge mess.

looks like they will make a klling

WTB .suck domains ... anyone?

And here is where the problem happens.

You know as I type this, money is being counted to buy .XXX to make sure it becomes a reality. 100k - 200k really is not much money at all, and it's pennys when you think about how much someone would make if they owned this and we got forced into using it. Hell, I'd buy it myself if I had the time to deal with such a headache.

It's going to turn into a mess either way the way they have opened all of this up. :2 cents:

I'm gonna get my cam out, gonna be a lot crashes around the 3rd corner.

The ICANN TLD domain dance makes my balls feel nauseous and sticky!

i hear dat.. that's what I have doing as well, focusing on my ventures (ie t3report) because trying to get people to care about their biz (2257, cp, acacia, etc) and the adult biz as a whole, can be tiring.

i post up with eternal hope that it makes some amount of difference to those who may be able to make a true difference.

.KIDS is truly the answer to allow kids a safe environment to visit approved websites.


Fight the choir!

It's a better answer than the other suggestions floating around, that's for sure.

One of the merits of a (regulated) .kids extension is that few people would oppose the notion of bringing the hammer down on anyone who posted age-restricted material -- pornographic or otherwise -- on a .kids domain. Where an adult-specific domain like .xxx is concerned, there probably would be a lot of debate as to the 'standards' and content policies adopted by those administering the sTLD.

In the end, no matter what policy the .xxx sTLD administrators came up with, none of it would do anything to prevent kids from being exposed to porn, unless .xxx was made mandatory, and an aggressive, international enforcement and filtering regime was put into place to ensure that any and all sexually explicit content posted outside of a .xxx domain was cracked down on in a big way. Such a system would be prohibitively expensive and labor-intensive -- and that's assuming that all the myriad countries and jurisdictions involved would even sign off on participating in the enforcement campaign in the first place.

As Brandon might say.... "Fight the impracticality!"

I totaly agree!

^^ what he said. i personally would move to costa rica or panama if .xxx happens.

the smartest people would move all .com business interests off shore AND work their .xxx interests here in the over regulated usa intraweb.

.xxx will never be a mandate though. but, i can see some adult entity starting some massive campaign saying that .xxx is the only domain for adult material, but as an industry if we're smart we'd tell them to shove their .xxx up their ass and not allow it to happen. none of the trade magazines should even give them press. don't help them at all. thats my opinion.

not going to get all up in this, but thats my feeling.

I'm not sure I see this affecting us yet. I'm of the persuasion that as long as the govt. doesn't force adult into a .xxx then nothing is gonna really change. People go to .com everytime even with all the extensions out there now.
But what IS interesting is the very big business of domain brokering. My old business partner and I had a LOT of domain names that we bought (I gave them all to him when we split the business). We would buy them and re-sell them.
A lot of people make a lot of money just doing that. Made sense because there was only so much "real estate" out there. And anybody that has looked into this knows how much a 3 or 4 character .com domain goes for.
It's astronomical. Doesn't make any difference if the 3 or 4 characters actually stand for anything or not.
So in my opinion...this change affects people with portfolios of domain names BIG TIME.
Yes, the .com will still be worth a lot. But I'm wondering how much of a hit they will take?
If you thought of domain names as "stocks" then I would say the Domain "Stock Market" is gonna have a pretty big percentage drop.
Affects them in real time. And problems that we percieve this causing us at this point for what we do are just that: theories and perceptions. May and May Nots.

i have to say the most disappointing thing is finding out that people who you respected as top notch and stand up are the ones who were behind it and helping the .xxx asshole from the beginning. after i found out stuff like that i don't trust anyone anymore. period. some of the people involved are the very same ones that people feel the need to suck up to and tell them how awesome they are. truly sad.

fight the me me me. wait nevermind. X that.

www.www :1orglaugh

.free
.sex
.xxx
.girl
.gay
.dvd
.porn
.fetish
.lesbian
.voyuer
.pornstar
.xondemand

:Oh crap

Very well put.

note that ICANN's power is international, so if they decided to "clean up the .com space", they could make it a requirement upon domain renewal, that any adult content needs to move to whatever other TLD, just not .COM

While there are minor issues like would sex education sites need to move out of .com, ICANN could make this a TOS requirement for the 99% other cases where its more clear cut about what is "adult". While hate speech and other "ills" of society could be targeted with the same manor, its adult content that strikes the bigger emotional chord, and therefore gets the focus.

At that point that adult sites are kicked out of .COM, then kids and adults would be less likely to trip across an adult site, since the consumers thinking is naturally to add .COM

Sounds crazy, but remember, there are a lot of forces outside of adult pushing for their own agenda of getting rid of porn, and they know trying to get a U.S. law passed will probably never happen.. and they also know that off-shore .COM would still exist... so going after porn at the domain TLD level is really the best, universal way that porn can be controlled, that is above governments.


Fight the things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

this thread and the whole fucking .anything potential for disaster is really starting to piss me off .. seems there are some pretty educated "guess's" being brought forth, but i think in reality it's all about the almighty $$ and none of us are in a position to overtake the whole interweb so the long and short of it all is we are gonna get ass raped here is my feeling ..

therein lies the issue. icann will not be a regulatory entity. they have said they will not do this and they do not want this responsibility. also where is the line drawn? you would have to put maixm magazine and fhm and anything remotely associated with selling sex on .xxx too. if you are going to make the internet a G rated environment you are walking the tightrope on what is adult?. what isn't acceptable for kids to see? who decides what goes on there? i can think of 100 things off the top of my head that would probably be deemed "not kid friendly" by different people in different areas of the country. i'm sure you see where i'm going with this. you open up .xxx you open it up for them to go further. it becomes television rating all over.

:Oh crap

For those not behind brandon wholeheartedly, let me explain from a networking perspective, .XXX would mean the end of adult internet as we know it. A few would ultimately prosper, but ultimately about 90 percent of those in adult webmastering would become unemployed. The easiest thing in the world would be to block the whole domain. Perhaps you have seen how politicians go after strip bars in an election year, can you imagine how they would go after .xxx? Then they would force isp's to block the entire domain. one by one, they would fall until maybe new york california and nevada remained as the only place you could view the adult internet. Silly? perhaps but not implausible. The truth is that someone already owns almost every good .xxx domain, so if you think well i will be able to get my domain in .xxx think again. This is the absolute worst thing that can happen to your adult webmastering money. All of us will suffer in the long term.

thanks brandon for keeping us abreast of the situation

What could be done to stop it or is it just coming get the resume ready?

i appreciated reading your insights into the Max Hardcore case in my thread over there... Max Hardcore case should really be waking people due to the visible attack on porn.

He got convicted for NOT sending DVD's and for having adult content on his website. Granted, his content was to the right, but blowjobs are obscene to a group of the population, so this wasn't about extremeness, but picking off a win that can be used as a launching point for broader attacks on porn.

Adult companies can't do anything about this .$$$ action by ICANN, other than be prepared for if the tin foil covered hammer falls, to be ready to deal with it.

skies not falling, but its starting to make thunder sounds.


Fight the forecast!

to get to the point where Caz is saying, ICANN would have to do the tin foil conspiracy theory.

.XXX, .SEX, .PORN, etc.. will surely be a reality in the next couple of years...

What we are waiting to see, is in 2009 , when they have allowed .WHATEVER to occur, and .XXX is one of the first to get approved, then we'll see what ICANN does about cleaning up .COM, or they just don't do anything.

If they do not restrictions, then .XXX will be just like .BIZ, people will register it and use it on their own free will.

The 3 previous proposed laws to use .XXX as mandatory will surely pop back up at that time, but there will be defenses fought by FSC, EFF, ACLU, etc to address that part.

Even if US passes it, then offshore will still flourish, so just means that the rest of adult in the US moves offshore.

Fight the exodus!

i'm going to go on record and say nothing is going to happen. people will try to exploit it, but icann wont monitor or police and the gov will not mandate .xxx

there i said it.

Morality in Media chimes in:



Launching a .XXX Domain Through ICANN's Backdoor, Instead of its Front Door, Won't Protect Kids or Society from Hardcore Pornography

Contact: Robert Peters, President, Morality in Media, 212-870-3210



NEW YORK, June 27 /Christian Newswire/ -- Yesterday, ICANN approved a recommendation that could see many new names introduced to the Internet's addressing system. Presently, users have a range of 21 top-level domains to choose from (e.g., .com and .org). According to a news report, when Dr Paul Twomey, President of ICANN, was asked about the .XXX domain name that ICANN rejected in March 2007, he stated that the new system would be "open to anyone." According to a statement published on the www.icann.org website, "offensive names will be subject to an objection-based process based on public morality and order...ICANN will not be the decision maker on these objections."

Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media, had the following comments.

"If a .XXX domain is destined to come into existence, perhaps it is better that it be just one of countless new domains, than one of the very few officially authorized by ICANN.

"The same objections to the .XXX domain proposal that failed to gain entrance through ICANN's 'front door' (by being officially approved by ICANN) would, of course, also apply to a .XXX domain launched through ICANN's new 'back door,' where ICANN would see no evil whatsoever.

"First, unlike zoning of 'adult uses' in real space, pornographers in cyberspace will not be required to use the new .XXX domain, and many (most) won't. Others will use the new domain, but will also retain their current .com domain. If anything, there will be more porn websites.

"Second, websites that use the .xxx domain will not be required to implement an age verification system. The domain will provide protection for children only to the extent that parents utilize filtering technology; and for various reasons many parents won't use it. Furthermore, filters at home cannot protect children outside the home, and tech savvy kids can circumvent filters.

"Third, the .XXX domain will not protect children from sexual predators who use 'adult porn' (i.e., no actual minors depicted) to arouse themselves and to arouse, desensitize and instruct their child victims.

"Fourth, the .XXX domain will not protect society from hardcore pornography. As the U.S. Supreme Court observed in an obscenity case, there are legitimate governmental interests at stake in stemming the tide of obscene materials 'even assuming it is feasible to enforce effective safeguards against exposure to juveniles and to passersby,' which include maintaining 'a decent society' and protecting 'public safety,' 'family life,' and the 'total community environment.'

"Fifth, the .XXX domain would become one more excuse to not enforce federal Internet obscenity laws, just as the zoning of 'adult businesses' in real space is now used as an excuse by some state investigators and prosecutors to not enforce state obscenity laws.

"If ICANN eventually approves the final version of the domain name expansion plan, organizations that opposed the original .XXX domain proposal can be expected to urge the international arbitration body to reject this domain on 'public morality and order grounds.' The U.S. Supreme Court has stated that government can suppress obscene materials to 'protect the social interest in order and morality.'

"If the .XXX domain is eventually launched through ICANN's back door, what will be promoted are websites offering hardcore pornographic materials that depict, among other things: pseudo child porn, gang bangs, group sex, unsafe sex, sex with barely legal teens, sex with siblings, sex with the neighbors' wives, sex with prostitutes, sex with she-males, sex with animals, sex with excrement, male-on-male rape, and the degradation, rape, torture and murder of women.

"I would also point out that for years the Motion Picture Association of America used the ?X-rating? for films that were unsuitable for children but presumably legal for adults. Pornographers picked up on that and used the 'X' rating, usually by adding an X or two (as in 'XX' and 'XXX') to signify ever more graphic and perverse (but still, the pornographers claimed and still claim, legal) forms of pornography.

"On a related matter, one wonders whether the .ho name will pass the arbitration panel's public morality and order test and if so, whether it will be awarded to a rapper, radio shock jock, prostitute, or pimp."



Fight the strange bedfellows!

For an organization that is to be so moral and seeking to protect kids, you would think they get their facts straight.

Pedophiles don't use "adult legal" porn to arouse themselves... they aren't into that.. their brain is wired differently.. they get off on seeing kids.

This is clear proof how people like these guys all the way up to Oprah who are confusing legal adult content with illegal Child porn content.

What ever happened to the morality to getting the facts straight!

Fight the Immorality in Media for making sh*t up to fit your purposes!

very true point

There isn't much that anyone can do at the moment. It will take another year before they open the doors, and when they do, the legal mess will begin.

What you can do is to atleast know what is going on, to be prepared with what your individual company is going to do.

You may decide for every .xxx, .sex, .porn etc that its easier to just buy your domains at the registration price, rather than at the domainer/squatter's price.

You may decide to do nothing.. let .COM rule and let others waste their money on the other TLD.

Either way you play it, best to be informed..


Fight the knowledge is power!

very true point

I would say that's not neccessarily the case. I have my shit trademarked for adult on the internet. I can take domains from any squatter out there using my trademarks for adult internet. I'm pretty sure that will still hold sway over any and all domain extensions. Perhaps a lawyer could chime in here about that.