Why I Oppose XXX
I have been employed for the last five years as a writer for the adult Internet industry. One of my main duties is to "feel the pulse" of my peers. I do this by reading message boards, analyzing news reports and researching technologies and standards that affect this business. I have observed the debate over the .xxx TLD over the years and I can guarantee ICANN that as a majority, adult webmasters DO NOT SUPPORT this foolish band-aid of a solution. I have read ICM Registry's first and second proposal and while it looks noble on the surface, I fear that ICM Registry is more interested in financial gain than actually protecting underage exposure to adult material. Why will this domain cost $60.00 per year? Who are these unnamed members of IFFOR? What does Jason Hendeles, of ICM Registry mean by his statement in this interview (http://www.thewhir.com/features/hendeles-eagle.cfm): "ICM Registry has projected that once the value of registering has been demonstrated successfully, domain registrations may reach or exceed 100,000 domain names within the first year of operations." Does Mr. Hendeles have his eye on protecting minors or on garnering profits? Another thing I don't understand is why IFFOR requires that sites label with ICRA. ICRA is already an established, voluntary labeling system that works in conjunction with their free filtering software. If adult webmasters label their sites with ICRA, why do we need ICM Registry and IFFOR? It appears to me that ICRA is and always has been the better solution. I cannot predict the future. I cannot claim that if ICANN passes the .xxx TLD, the US government will then force all adult sites into a domain ghetto. However, the possibility is there. The probability that adults in the US will be disallowed from viewing adult content through legislation and IP blocking is not out of the question. The chance that we will all suffer the scourge of censorship is authentic. What sites will pass the muster of IFFOR? What help and information sites will be swept under the .xxx rug? I stand with the consensus of my industry. The .xxx TLD is a bad idea. As an ending statement I give you the opinion of Ian Jacobs. As ICANN is aware, Mr. Jacobs is the head of communications for the World Wide Web Consortium. His opinion on the .xxx TLD and filtering can be found here: http://www.w3.org/2004/03/28-tld From the opinion, Mr. Jacobs states: 1. TLDs Do Not Allow Effective Filtering 2. TLDs Created for Filtering are Harmful and Burdensome 3. TLDs Created for Filtering are Unnecessary Sincerely, J. Romig AKA: Titmowse of CozyFrog http://www.cozyfrog.com AKA: Blogslut http://www.blogslut.com |