.xxx registry sues US government

An anonymous reader writes in to say that "ICM Registry LLC, the company behind the proposed .xxx internet porn domain, is to sue two departments of the US government for access to documents it claims show the US pressured ICANN into rejecting the domain. The Florida-based startup will sue the Department of Commerce and the Department of State to get them to release documents that they redacted when they responded to a Freedom Of Information Act request that ICM filed last year."

Comments

In the end...

[taskforce]

In the end I think that the domain was rejected becuase it recieved little support from either political disposition.

Libertarians rejected the domain beucase it would make porn easier to block, and Christian Moralist groups rejected the idea because it would in some way sanction the appearance of porn on the net and make it integral it's structure or backbone. That and they couldn't figure out that it would make it easier to block porn.

In many ways it has the same advantages for all sides as Net Neutrality does, except without bussiness interests causing corporate lobbyists to stick their neck around the door.

Re:In the end...

[Dasch]

"In the end I think that the domain was rejected becuase it recieved little support from either political disposition."

What right does American politicians to decide whether or not there should be an XXX TLD? It's because of things like this that other countries want an international organization to control the TLD's.

The only reason I'm skeptical of such thing is that several countries would without doubt use their influence to restrict the freedom of the 'net (*cough* China!)

Re:In the end...

[buysse]

There's a third reason, and the one makes it a bad idea IMNSHO.

Define porn. In a way that people from (non-inclusively) the Vatican, Tehran, Singapore, Beijing, and a small Baptist congregation in the US Bible Belt will agree to.

Does it include a site from a plastic surgeon that has before and after pictures? How about information about safe sex, including proper condom use? Does it include the picture of a celebrity with a bit of cellulite that the National Enquirer paid US $50,000 for? How about pictures from a family vacation that include an unmarried woman tanning on a beach? Where can you draw the line internationally?

Re:In the end...

[killjoe]

It gets even more complicated when you take into account the billions of fetishes in the world. For some people pictures of people wearing slippers is porn, for others pictures of accidents are porn.

Porn is what happens in your head, not what's on the screen.

Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

I care. I don't care about the .xxx TLD. I think it wouldn't hurt, but it won't help either. But I do care how the decision was made: I want to know if it was independent or if ICANN just executed what the US government demanded. In discussions about control over DNS and the root servers, the US constantly reiterate that ICANN is independent, and even though it is on US soil, it acts without interference from the US government. If there is evidence that the US government pressured ICANN into making a decision that it would have made differently on its own, then it is high time for the rest of the world to establish independent DNS roots.

Re:Why?! This .xxx registry is a big waste of spac

[vertinox]

Secondly, if .xxx sites get registered it'll make it even EASIER for kids to find porn now.

And easier for parents to block.

Well... If they so choose to educate themselves on the matter in order out how to set their router firewall to block all *.xxx connections.

Not that kids have been looking at their parents porn mags and adult video tapes for the past 20 years. Truth be told... Porn never hurt any kids. Uncaring parents too disinterested in the welfare of their kids have.

Teach your kids to be sexual healthy and not sexually repressed.

Otherwise they are going to learn the hard way... You know... Teen pregnancy and STDs.