A longstanding proposal to create a specialized .xxx suffix for sex-related entertainment Web sites received a final rejection yesterday by the agency governing the Internet address system.
The plan, first introduced seven years ago by ICM Registry, was rejected by a vote of 9 to 5 by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, at a meeting in Lisbon.
The issue will not be brought for further discussion by Icann, but ICM Registry, the Florida company that was also applying to manage the address, said it would continue to pursue the issue.
“We are extremely disappointed by the board’s action today,” Stuart Lawley, chairman of ICM Registry, said. “It is not supportable for any of the reasons articulated by the board.”
Board members who voted against the plan expressed concern that it would compel Icann to become involved in regulating content, among other issues.
To ease concerns over promoting content, ICM had said that .xxx Web sites would be issued only to entertainment providers identifying themselves as complying with a set of business practices that included a ban on child pornography and warnings about content.
ICM had argued that creation of the domain would enhance safety for young users by clearly defining .xxx sites as a no-go zone.
Described last week by Paul Twomey, Icann’s chief executive, as “clearly controversial, clearly polarizing,” the issue had been discussed among Internet enthusiasts and on blogs.
Some who objected to the proposal included companies in the sex-related entertainment industry as well as religious groups. The entertainment executives raised fears that use of the domain, although voluntary, could open the way for governments to isolate sex-oriented Web sites into a single part of the Internet.
Religious groups expressed concern that creation of the .xxx domain would serve only to encourage creation of more sex-related content.
Others warned that the move would create a bonanza for ICM Registry, since companies with existing Web sites would be compelled to buy .xxx domain names to prevent someone else from creating sites using their company names.
Supporters of the proposal on the Icann board argued that the agency’s role was to serve as a technical arbiter about the feasibility of new domain names, not to discriminate on the basis of content.
The decision to reject .xxx was “weak and unprincipled,” a board member, Susan Crawford, said.
“No centralized authority should set itself up as the arbiter of what people may do together online,” Ms. Crawford said in a statement to the board, adding that political pressures played an undue role. “This is not a technical stability and security question.”-The New York Times
