regarding ICANN and the .xxx domain

["Scott" <scott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am writing to you to express my concerns regarding the proposed .xxx domain 
name extension that is going to be debated on your next meeting on May 10th.

I am a member of the adult webmaster community and I will try to express the 
opinions of said community.
As an experienced internet user, developer and entrepreneur I will also try to 
look at this problem from a wider perspective.

Creating a specific domain for adult related content has been discussed almost 
since the beginning of the commercial internet in the mid. 1990's.
Such proposals were brought up by different organizations and politicians but 
they were never implemented because there has been no consensus whether such 
idea is truly worth implementing.

Now it seems, that we are the closest to the 'porn domain' ever, since ICANN 
basically gave a 'green light' to the ICM Registry who applied to run this 
domain name extension.

At this point I could point out that ICANN seems to be creating recently many 
domain extensions, which are not serving any real purpose in my opinion.
I am relating to domains like travel, .mobi, .museum or .jobs.
I am however in no position to judge ICANN's decisions on these matters and I 
don't want really to oppose them, since these domains may not serve a true 
purpose, but they don't cause any harm either.

However, the proposed .xxx domain name has gained worldwide media attention and 
a huge amount of critical voices, from very different sides.

As a member of the adult webmaster community I would like to state that also 
the huge majority of our industry does not want this domain.
We feel that this domain is truly not necessary and if anything it can have 
negative effects - not only on our industry but on the whole internet.

ICM Registry claims that this voluntary TLD would bring self regulation into 
the adult industry and eliminate unethical behaviours.
First of all, we can not talk about self regulation, if anything - we can talk 
about outside regulation because the .xxx domain registry would not represent 
the interests of the online adult industry.

Second, the adult industry has already reached a certain point of self 
regulation where the unethical business practices are eliminated, while the 
criminal activities ( such as using underage content ) never had any support 
from the industry and those few criminals trying to make money in such ways 
can't be perceived and treated as representatives for our industry.Therefore, a 
possible .xxx domain name implementation would have no real impact on these 
'bad activities'.

Third, even if what I said above wasn't true ( well, it is true ) then with a 
suggested $60 - per domain pricing, no company or individual webmaster would 
give up their main addresses ( usually .com's ) and move to .xxx voluntarily 
anyway.
And a forced transition - even if implemented in the US would be impossible to 
enforce on a global level and... according to ICM Registry, they have already 
ensured that .xxx stays voluntary so this shouldn't be even a question.

To sum up, the .xxx domain would serve no real purpose other than making money 
for the ICM Registry.
None of the goals presented by the ICM Registry to ICANN would be reached, 
other than their own goal - which is to show good intensions and in fact hoping 
to exploit the online adult industry.

Please also note that the ICM Registry claims to have "adult industry support" 
for this domain.
I would like to state that this is simply not the case and the overwhelming 
majority of adult webmasters don't want this domain.
I realize that this might be hard to prove in an email - so please take my word 
on it.
Or you can just look at the huge anti.- xxx response in your public comments 
forum.

Finally, I would like to remind you, that not only the adult online industry is 
opposed to .xxx.
As you must remember, such a different organisation as Family Research Council 
also strongly opposed this idea last year.
 From what I heard, also the US Department of Commerce is against this idea and 
several other countries or international bodies like the European Union, don't 
want it either.

With that being said, I'd like to kindly ask you to vote down the .xxx domain 
proposal on your next meeting.
ICANN may be an independent body but you just can't ignore all the millions of 
people who don't want the .xxx domain created.

With Kind Regards,

Scott Ellison
webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx