Do NOT approve the .xxx tld!

[Nigel <nigel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear ICANN,

I am writing you for the second time this year to let you know that I, as a 
webmaster who runs several adult websites, do NOT want the .xxx tld.

It is my understanding that to be able to get approval for the .xxx tld, the 
ICM registry needs to prove that it has the support of its intended audience or 
customers (meaning people active in the adult industry). The ICM Registry does 
not have the support of the adult industry.

In all those years that the possibility of a .xxx tld has been mentioned, I 
have witnessed a lot of lively discussions amongst adult webmasters about how 
the .xxx tld would hurt our industry, but I have never seen an adult webmaster 
promote or approve of the idea (of a .xxx tld).

The .xxx tld offers no benefits to the adult industry (its intended customers) 
or to consumers of adult entertainment products or to people who wish to avoid 
adult content.

Recently the ICM and people affiliated with the ICM (but with no proven ties 
whatsoever to the adult industry) have been flooding this list with comments 
such as "I believe that the labelling of adult content online is a good and 
useful step forward for an organized step in appropriately controlling adult 
content." This statement consists out of 2 parts:
1. The ICM's .xxx tld would offer a way to label adult content.
2. The ICM's .xxx tld would be one step in a series of actions to control adult 
content.

Regarding the first point, I can simply say that there are already several ways 
to label adult content. Personally I label all of my sites with Safesurf tags. 
People who wish to avoid my sites, or don't want their children to access my 
sites can easily do so by using a filter program that recognizes those tags. 
Obviously the ICM's proposal does not fill any kind of gap. Free alternatives 
already exist.

The second point is more insidious. People in the adult industry have long 
suspected that the ICM Registry had plans to lobby to make the use of a .xxx 
domain mandatory for adult content. Both the ICM, mr Lawley and his supporters 
have stated that the .xxx tld would offer an efficient way to filter out adult 
content. Filtering content based on the tld can only be effective if all 
content related to that tld is only to be found on sites using a domain under 
that tld. In other words: The .xxx tld can only be considered an effective way 
to filter out adult content if the ICM can make the use of a .xxx domain 
mandatory for adult content.

If the ICM registry would ever succeed in making the use of a .xxx domain 
mandatory for certain types of content (or if the ICM Registry would merely 
attempt to lobby for that kind of legislation), this would create a ton of 
legal and other problems for both ICANN, the adult industry and every registrar 
that ever registered a non .xxx domain that's now being used for an adult 
website.

Regardless of what you believe the ICM Registry's true intentions or future 
plans may be, the fact remains that the ICM 's .xxx proposal has no support in 
the adult industry.

The whole .xxx proposal is an abomination and it would be in the interest of 
both ICANN, the adult industry, free enterprise and the whole internet to kill 
it once and for all.

regards,
Nigel W.