Opposed to sTLD addition

[Steven Kent <stevek@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This comment is to register opposition to the .xxx sTLD. Several time
the community in that past has made its negative feelings known
regarding this TLD, and there has been no change in the marketplace or
in operations which suggests that more support now exists.

1) Many representatives of supposed sponsored -- or served -- community
have made it clear that they are opposed to the creation of this TLD.
ICANN, itself, has noted the lack of support among the sponsored
community numerous times in the past.

2) There is no operational support for this TLD. Network and server
operators have made it clear that they have no strong support, and many,
including myself, see this TLD as providing little to no benefit to the
community, and fear that this TLD will add operational costs and
pressures which would interfere with open network operations.

3) The GAC has noted the there is very little governmental support for
the TLD, and has noted that some governments oppose its creation.

4) This TLD opens a potential host of problems for ICANN and IANA
operations in the future, as it inserts these organizations into issues
of Internet content.

The .xxx sTLD has been rejected by the community is supposedly is
designed to serve, by the government advisory committee, and by Internet
operators around the world. There is no basis to allow this agreement to
proceed without strong support from at least one of these communities.
Instead, there exists strong opposition from most of them. Finally, the
creations of the .xxx sTLD will insert ICANN and network operations into
issues of Internet content which will only lead to the further
politicization of operations. How long will it be before ICANN mustthen
approve the .violence TLD or the .drugs TLD so all controversial content
can have its own classification TLD?

-- ------------------------------------ Steven Kent Chief Technical
Officer onShore Networks http://www.onshore.com fingerprint: pub
1024D/D2779F66 2004-04-07
-- 
------------------------------------
Steven Kent
Chief Technical Officer
onShore Networks
http://www.onshore.com
fingerprint: pub  1024D/D2779F66 2004-04-07