So much for XXX


Proposed top level domain goes down in flames
Kirsten over at Enjoy Every Sandwich runs a sex toy business on the side. That makes her an expert on the trashed proposal for the top level .xxx domain.

As owner of an online sex toy store, I am not sorry to see .xxx domains go away. Registration was going to be significantly more expensive than what I currently pay for a .com domain, and what value would I get from it? None. But I’d have to quick hunt down my same domain name but with the .xxx extension and pay for that in addition to my current website or risk losing business when someone else snaps it up and my customers accidentally go to the wrong site.

Meanwhile, herding all adult sites into the .xxx fold opens the door to putting different conditions and restrictions on adult websites that other sites need not be subject to. And it’s not a big leap from “Here, would you like a .xxx domain name in addition to your .com domain name?” to “I’m sorry, but we’re revoking your .com domain name. As an adult site, you are only entitled to a .xxx domain name.” I am just amazed that an organization such as Focus on the Family would oppose this ghettoization of adult websites.

Aside from the impact that it would have had on the small business owner, there is no reason to believe that the entire sex industry would have switched to .xxx. And even then, what qualifies as sex? Under some versions of Sharia law, women in public be covered. That pretty much makes the Sears catalog xxx.

Anything that shows the unclothed human form qualifies, so much for museum web stores.

Critiques of literature? Also xxx.

Religious studies? Also xxx. Heck, the Bible's depiction of David qualifies all by itself.

But this was the one that was the kicker to me.

Twomey said the decision largely came down to whether the creation of "xxx" might put ICANN in a difficult position of having to enforce all of the world's laws governing pornography, including ones that might require porn sites to use the domain. Speech-related laws, he noted, often conflict with one another.

Ironic, isn't it? There is too much government to make enforcing the xxx domain practical.

KYFHO strikes again.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - May 12, 2006 at 04:41 AM  Tag


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