I think the committee should avoid the use of TLD's which could be used as excuses
for the repression of free speech. TLD's like ".sex", ".xxx", ".adult", or
even ".politics" will introduce "reasonable time, place, and manner" restrictions
upon speech which should otherwise enjoy the presumption of full protection under
U.S. law. I would hope that the committee would agree that U.S. Citizens should
not have check their rights at their gateway.Such domains constitute a voluntary
system of self restraint. I doubt that such a system would remain voluntary
for long. Consider the following scenario:
1. Large site owners [with a lot
to lose, financially speaking] may decide to surrender their sexually suggestive,
but valuable ".com" domains in order to relocate to the new domains. They will
be able to do this because they will have the resources to rebrand themselves in
the new domain. Their motive to do so may be to avoid potential lawsuits, or
state harrassment, or just to look like conscientious, family-friendly corporate
citizens.
2. As adult oriented sites begin to migrate, and their ".com"
holdouts begin to dwindle, it will seem increasingly "reasonable" to ask the remainders
to move into the red-light district themselves. But many of these remaining
sites who have a legitimate right to their ".com", ".org", or ".net" domain may not
wish to move for a variety of reasons: Perhaps they operate a mixed content
site, so breaking up their content into different top-level domains will dilute their
brand. Perhaps they are unwilling to sacrifice a brand which represents a significant
investment in time and money. Perhaps they lack the resources to relocate and
relaunch their business in a new domain. Finally, perhaps they are individuals
who do this as a hobby and are politically opposed to such zoning.
3. Nevertheless,
Opportunistic politicians will exploit public pressure to call for laws which would
make the scheme mandatory.
Under current First Amendment jurisprudence,
such a system might be deemed constitutionally permissable as a "reasonable time,
place, and manner" restriction. When this happens, law-abiding site owners,
amateurs, and hobbiests who lack the resources to tear down and rebuild in these
domains will go out of business. Law-abiding sites which offer mixed content
will need to offer mixed content minus anything which belongs somewhere else.
Finally, all sites will need to be careful about what they publish so it does not
land them in a lawsuit brought by a competitor or by the state to banish them into
the "red-light" ghetto, or even worse, in jail.
Rather than zoning off unpopular
speech, why not create a TLD zone for users who want to avoid such speech, such as
".kids" or ".family". This allows interested users a safe harbor while allowing
site owners to retain their rightful domains, and allowing all of us to keep our
freedom.