NO on .XXX

["Jesse Goldberg" <jesse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear ICANN,

The .XXX TLD is an unwelcomed burden to the adult industry. Whether you are 
affiliated with online pornography or stand wholeheartedly against it, .XXX is 
not a solution created with a child's best interest in mind. I can't see how 
anyone could support .XXX. For adult webmasters, it forces you to give up your 
previous business, frequent visitors (bookmarkers), costs much more, is 
regulated through a 3rd party's MORALS (not by law), and can be used to 
automatically block you from potential customers (college students.) As one who 
loathes internet porn, why would you support something that assists in 
legitimizing online pornography?

To all Americans, regardless of your personal opinion; consider just how fair 
this regulation is. It is a violation of free speech. Would you expect to have 
your church's website strictly designated to a .god domain? How do you think 
Amazon or eBay would feel if they were forced to a .shop domain, leaving their 
established brand-name up for grabs to whoever clicks 'register' the fastest? 
I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate it. Neither does the majority of the adult 
industry.

Many flaws exist within the proposal of ICM's .XXX TLD. For instance, parents 
who have failed to install parental controls on their home computers will not 
suddenly be urged to do so (should .XXX pass.) The implementation of this TLD 
will not provide a cure for a parent's irresponsibility / ignorance. 

Furthermore, the implementation of .XXX as a means of decreasing / stopping the 
distribution of child pornography simply will not work. Sadly, child smut 
peddlers are much too smart to fall victim to the regulation of a .XXX domain. 
Why would someone doing something so illegal (and immoral) choose to be 
regulated through the .XXX TLD? They won't. They'll continue to register .coms 
(most likely through hosts located in poorly-regulated, foreign countries.) 
They'll also continue to distribute their material through p2p file-sharing 
services, which fall far beyond the reach of .XXX (as no domain registration at 
all is required and anonymity is basically assured.)

I assure you that no honest adult webmaster intends to offer minors access to 
pornographic content. Besides the fact that it is morally wrong... (Yes, we 
have morals. We are people, too.) ...it is not a smart business decision. We 
are a business like any other (for the most part.) We offer free 'sample' 
content in hopes that adults will enjoy it, and thus buy memberships. To 
purchase a membership, a credit card is necessary. Seeing as how minors cannot 
legally own credit cards, they are obviously ruled out as the target market. 
There are no benefits to providing minors with pornograpy. I, personally, am 
disgusted with those who do, as well as with the parents that fail to regulate 
what media their child views.

Unfortunately, the only ones who will feel the effects of this unwelcome burden 
are the honest webmasters; who want only to bring sexually explicit content to 
the eyes of mature adults who wish to view it. Some of you stand in favor of 
being allowed the privilege of viewing online pornography. Some of you believe 
it is corrupt, degrading to women, an exploitation of human sexuality, or 
perhaps all of the above. Whatever your stance, I beg you to pardon your 
previous bias if only for a minute, to see the ICM proposed .XXX TLD for what 
it really is; a way of collecting larger revenues and supressing those who hold 
an interest in seeing two consenting adults engage in sexual intercourse. How 
will .XXX succeed? By selling you false promises that .XXX is sincerely 
interested in protecting your children. 

Did you know that the new .XXX TLD will cost webmasters $60 per domain vs $8-12 
for a .com domain? Moral stance aside, isn't that a suspiciously large profit 
markup for something solely intended to benefit children?

I've discussed the problems and deceit lying within the .XXX proposal; but what 
about a truly effective solution? 

I propose to you that all adult sites featuring and linking to adult content 
should be forced to label themselves with an RTA label. 
(http://www.rtalabel.org)
RTA labelling is detectable by parental software, is easy to integrate into 
websites, and avoids the burden and fees associated with a .XXX TLD. If sites 
fail to label themselves, they should be shut down immediately or subject to 
fines/penalties of some sort. If ICM is sincerely interested in protecting 
children, and not lining their pockets with cash, they should have no 
complaints against this proposal.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you will understand why I, 
and the majority of the adult industry, DO NOT SUPPORT .XXX.

Sincerely,

Jesse Goldberg
Adult Dating Dollars
Jesse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ICQ 296775809