Registry Upbeat Despite 2nd Pushback of Final Approval
ICANN’s board last week again postponed a final vote on .xxx, voicing concern over terms of the proposed pact with ICM Registry. The resolution’s wording wasn’t available Fri., but ICANN staff was said to have been asked to decide if those concerns might prompt revision of the registry agreement. Though his proposal for an adults-only top-level domain (TLD) has been hanging fire since 2000, registry Pres. Stuart Lawley said he remains upbeat. “We are absolutely confident that the board questions can be fully and easily resolved,” he told Washington Internet Daily.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
ICANN directors seemed to worry that, after getting final approval, ICM Registry might sell off .xxx, Lawley said. The concern is “hardly surprising,” since just after the board okayed .travel, its registry was sold. Another issue involved “changes in the definition of the sponsored TLD community,” he said. Given ICANN’s experience with .pro -- okayed as a TLD limited to professionals such as doctors and lawyers but pitched by some registrars to others -- directors were right to voice concern, Lawley said.
A final vote on the .xxx registry agreement was set for Aug. 16, but rescheduled to Sept. 15 upon request by the U.S. Commerce Dept., the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), and the applicant (WID Aug 17 p1). Last week, the Swedish govt. asked ICANN to delay final approval of the registry agreement until after the GAC meets in late Nov.
Pornography is “not compatible with” Sweden’s gender equality goals, Communications & Regional Policy Minister Ulrica Messing and State Secretary for Communications & Regional Policy Jonas Bjelfvenstam said in letters to Board Chmn. Vinton Cerf and Pres. Paul Twomey. “The constant exposure of pornography and degrading pictures in our everyday lives normalizes the exploitation of women and children and the pornography industry profits” from it,” they wrote. An adult-material TLD “might increase the volume” of porn on the Internet rather than wall it off.
When the GAC sought to delay the Aug. vote, Lawley said GAC members and others had had ample chances to raise and address concerns. Swedish officials acknowledged last week that “all TLD applications are dealt with in procedures open to everyone for comment,” but said in cases like this, which clearly involve public interests, “we feel it could have been appropriate for ICANN to request advice from GAC.” They admitted the GAC could have written to ICANN “at any point in time in the process,” but said several GAC members in fact had raised questions before the GAC met in July at the ICANN’s Luxembourg meeting. “However,” the officials said, “we all probably rested assured that ICANN’s negative opinion on .xxx, expressed in 2000, would stand.”
When ICANN instead okayed the red-light TLD concept in June, the GAC lacked time for informed discussion, Swedish officials said. The GAC will meet Nov. 29-30 during ICANN’s Vancouver meeting; Sweden wants the board’s vote pushed back until after that, they said. The govt. wants ICANN to explain in detail how the .xxx proposal meets criteria for assessing proposals for new TLDs.
Last month, the Danish govt. faulted ICANN’s process for approving .xxx, saying the Internet body failed in its duty to consult govts. before making public policy decisions on such matters (WID Aug 26 p7). The board will consider the outcome of its negotiations on the .xxx registry agreement “at some future date,” an ICANN spokesman said.
The Family Research Council still wants Commerce to fight the domain’s creation. “The .xxx domain is nothing more than an Internet land grab for pornographers with no benefit whatsoever to parents who want to protect children from illegal pornography,” said Patrick Trueman, senior legal counsel: “The porn industry… will not give up its lucrative .com sites and move.”