ICANN and ICM Registry Sued by Major Porn Companies

by Violet Blue on November 18, 2011

And here we all thought dot-XXX would turn out so well for everyone.

Here is my newest article for CBSi, Major Porn Sites Sue ICANN Over .XXX. This has become even more of a mess – in the 44-page suit it is alleged that “ICANN agreed to approve the .XXX TLD, and to approve ICM as the XXX registry (…) because ICM promised to pay ICANN what is expected to be millions of dollars in fees.” Holy crap! Here’s the start:

The company behind major porn sites including YouPorn, PornHub, Brazzers, Xtube and Playboy.com have been joined by adult industry powerhouse Digital Playground to file an anti-monopoly lawsuit against ICANN over the dot-XXX TLD.

Luxembourg-based Manwin and Digital Playground are suing both ICANN and the company that created and manages dot-XXX, ICM Registry. ICANN is the non-profit that, among other things, oversees the management of the top-level domain name space.

Manwin and Digital Playground want an injunction to stop the .XXX TLD and require its re-opening with competition and “reasonable price constraints.”

Aside from that, if their allegations against ICANN are anywhere near true, I think this case could impact the entire domain name system and how it is run. (…read more, Pulp Tech)

Image via the amazing Tony Kelly’s website.

Violet Blue

The London Times named Violet Blue "One of the 40 bloggers who really count" and Self Magazine named TinyNibbles one of the “Best Sex Resources for Women.” Blue is an autodidact and pundit on sex and technology, hacking and security, porn for women, privacy and bleeding-edge tech culture. She is a journalist for ZDNet, CBS News, CNET; she's an educator, speaker, crisis counselor, volunteer NGO trainer, and the author and editor of over 40 award-winning books.

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