Feature: No One Wants .XXX, So How Did It Happen?

The short answer to that question, in my opinion, is that three guys who like to wear Hawaiian shirts out of season wore down ICANN until they were like, alright already. You can sell swampland to sugar cane farmers who *have* to buy it and tell the world it’s all for a glucose awareness organization that no one will put their name on. No one cares because it’s just sugar.

There are a lot of things here that really make me concerned. It’s already strongarming people into defensive registrations to the tune of hundreds of millions before it’s even finalized. No one wants it, but it got the green light, pretty much on a technicality. It unites factions who want each other utterly destroyed, but they all agree this is a bad idea, one that would only make porn’s problems worse. The ACLU has raised serious issues that have gone unanswered, and no one seems to give a shit about what something like .xxx could mean in places like Iran. US reps are already drooling over legislation to make .xxx required for “adult” sites — despite the fact that no one in any of this or elsewhere can agree on a single, universal definition of adult content.

You can be sure there is a lot more in this article (that will surprise you) than in any other articles about .xxx currently grabbing headlines.

Here’s a snip from Now Playing: .XXX TLD Carpetbaggers Give New Meaning to “Drop and Snatch”:

What do you get when you combine a former real estate developer, an ex-employee from a scandal-ridden domain bidding business, and an ex-fax machine salesman?

Your first answer probably isn’t “internet pornography and child safety consultants.”

But that’s exactly who’s behind creating and curating an adults-only gated trailer park on the Internet: three unlikely startup jocks plan to make a .xxx suffix for pornographic websites, despite the fact that no one on any side of the debate wants one. Last week, their struggling ten-year-old proposal for an .xxx TLD (top level domain, such as .com) not only re-appeared, but arrived looking greenlit for takeoff. As .xxx got a preliminary nod for approval – not for the first time – the controversial TLD once again set off alarms in every sector it affects, bizarrely uniting anti-porn religious organizations with porn magnates, the ACLU, and Internet denizens of all kinds. (…read more, carnalnation.com)

Photo: Alice Rausch of Chic by Jamie Nelson via Fashion Gone Rogue.

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3 Comments - COMMENTARY is DESIRED

  1. i consider eBay porn for the “hoarders” and since i am only one person then they HAVE to make it ebay.xxx right? because that makes sense.
    stupid fucking people.
    its like when in Hyannis all Maxims, FHMs, anything swimsuit issue had to be sold behind the register with the Playboys, Penthouses etc
    its all ridiculous.

  2. “It’s already strongarming people into defensive registrations to the tune of hundreds of millions before it’s even finalized.”

    Yep. However the politics of the .xxx domain play out, just in terms of profiting off of defensive registration, ICMRegistry is going to make a mint off of this. The fact that for-profit companies are allowed to create domains that others have to pay into to protect their copyright is outrageous.

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