xxx deal

[Timothy Denton <tim@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here are my thoughts on the ICM xxx deal.

This is a commercial proposition. The fate of the world does not depend 
on it one way or another. It has certain advantages for people of 
various persuasions, and certain disadvantages. I think the advantages 
outweigh the disadvantages, for reasons I shall try to put forward.

I am going to use the word pornography. If you do not like that word, 
substitute the word "adult entertainment" in your mind when you read 
this note. Some think a moral objection should be raised to pornography, 
that it is something different from erotica. I am not quibbling about 
this issue here.

For those who think pornography should not exist and should not be 
available,  ever, anywhere, the disadvantage of the proposition is that 
having a dot xxx domain seems to lend recognition to that which they 
would prefer never to be recognized. For people of this persuasion I 
infer that dot xxx is a purely symbolic issue. Clearly, unless they are 
manifestly incapable of recognizing reality, an xxx domain does not 
increase by one iota the amount of pornography on the internet. The 
supply is already vast and it is worth billions a year worldwide. So for 
some people, dot xxx is a recognition of a fact about human nature they 
would prefer never to be recognized, our lust for sexual images.

While one might sympathize with their uncompromising principles, most of 
us have a more nuanced and tolerant approach to human sexual behaviour. 
Walls, privacy, and discretion are required parts of that approach. Dot 
xxx may operate more as a partition that an invitation to something 
otherwise not available. Being an address on the internet, the dot xxx 
"partition" is notional only. Nothing would be barred by it, except as 
the rules of the dot xxx domain establish.

For people who reject the existence of pornography, the creation of a 
dot xxx domain allows them to pretend that someone, somewhere has 
approved of pornography, when in fact the xxx domain is really, in my 
view, an attempt to locate it, and to some extent, allow participating 
members to operate by a code.

For those who make their living from pornography, the threat they see is 
that pornography would be more regulated than before. I have not paid 
any attention in years to any of the commercial relationships that ICM 
would hope to create with the porn business, and here my knowledge may 
be faulty, but it was always my understanding that no element of 
coercion is involved in ICM's potential future relationship to any adult 
entertainment. So that, after ICM and dot xxx are in business, any 
pornographer could join the operation or continue to operate 
independently of the dot xxx domain.

Since it is a commercial operation, the market - the people who stand to 
benefit or lose by affiliating with dot xxx, could decide for themselves 
whether to join or not.

Dot xxx is really much more like an exercise in cloistering pornography 
than in making it more available.

Finally, in an era of search engines, where domain names are lessening 
in relative significance as locators of websites, the heat generated by 
this issue seems out of place. The effective reachable supply of 
pornography will not be lessened or increased by this concept, nor will 
it be legitimized in some way.

Several years ago I did some consulting work for ICM. I have had no 
business or personal relationship to that organization for several years.

Hoping this may prove useful in your deliberations, I am

Timothy Denton
Ottawa. Canada