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Two Porn Companies Take ICANN and .xxx Registrar To Court
SharkLaser writes "Two of the largest porn companies on the internet, Manwin and Digital Playground, yesterday sued both ICANN and ICM Registry, which runs the .xxx TLD, over extorting defensive registrations with ICANN's blessing. 'The complaint focuses on ICM's recently concluded "sunrise" period, during which porn companies, for about $200, could apply to own a .xxx address matching their trademark or .com domain.' Schools also felt the same way, and had to reserve domains under their name so that no porn content could be put up on them. The .xxx TLD has also previously been subject to criticism by both religious groups and adult industry, but for different reasons. Religious groups believe the .xxx TLD legitimizes pornography, while the adult industry believes it could lead to censorship."
Although the only real solution is to replace the TLD system altogether.
Maybe the next TLD will be .X13 and then .X18.. etc. The same thing that the MPAA does with film ratings.
After the great .cx purge all the great websites moved to .ru
The $200 fee is bullshit, and clearly unfair profiteering. My tax dollars went toward the development of the Internet. Who gave ICANN the authority to require another $200 from me to register a domain name?
Porn will exist on the internet whether you want it to or not. Using a .xxx TLD makes it that much easier to identify and filter porn if you don't want to see it.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
I mean .xxx does in some sense acknowledge that people market pron. ( is there any sane person who dosn't know that? )
It also should make it MUCH easier for people who want to avoid seeing pron to not be spammed by it.
Is it censorship to not look at things I don't want to and now allow them to be seen by people using equipment I have authority over?
( Assuming of coarse the equipment is not paid for by public funds who's business is it what I do and do not allow on my networks and equipment).
It seems to me .xxx meets a legitimate content labeling goal that can make everyone's life easier because we all understand what kind of 'information' should be labeled in that way and can act appropriately.
âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
Religious groups believe the .xxx TLD legitimizes pornography, while the adult industry believes it could lead to censorship.
Sooo... religious groups don't want a powerful tool they could use to hurt the porn industry and the porn industry is afraid the religious lobby might clamp down on them with a potentially powerful censorship tool the religious lobby doesn't want...
Domain names cost like $7. Why do they have to pay $200 for one in another TLD just because it has the same base name? Disband ICANN and ICM and sell of their assets.
Domains used to be free. Whose brother-in-law in congress gave these a-holes authority to charge money for a free service?
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Little-known fact: humanity achieved strong AI almost a decade ago. Unfortunately, we botched its sense of humour. All lazy trolls on the Internet are actually just one super-intelligent perl script.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
$200 is definitely a high price when you try to register all typos, abreviations and variants of your mark, but a good price to deter squatters and bulk buyer speculators.
that the whole .xxx issue is causing more problems than solutions. If porn gets its own TLD then why don't gun companies have their own TLD extension?
Because violence is okay and porn is dirty? Double standard...
This is just a racket to force many companies to pay ICANN for protection.
Unlike the uselss .biz and .co TLDs that no one care about, .xxx can be used to be actively exploit and damage the names of respected businesses and organizations.
Legitimate porn companies will probably stay away from .xxx names because it is saying that we can't afford a real TLD. It will also open themselves up to be easily censored. There is nothing advantageous to it.
$5 to cover the cost of the paperwork sounds better.
The "pre-emptive block" should in no way be a moneymaker for anyone.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Makes sense. If I had a sense of humor, made via perl I'd inflict my misery on everyone too.
Om, nomnomnom...
Porn will exist on the internet whether you want it to or not. Using a .xxx TLD makes it that much easier to identify and filter porn if you don't want to see it.
Jewish owned sites will exist on the internet whether you want them to or not. Using a .jew TLD makes it that much easier to identify and filter Jewish sites if you don't want to see them.
Jewish owned businesses will exist in Germany whether you want them to or not. Using a Star of David badge makes it that much easier to identify and filter Jewish businesses if you don't want to use them.
Jewish people will exist in Germany whether you want them to or not. Using a Star of David badge makes it that much easier to identify and filter Jewish people if you don't want to associate with them.
That chain of thought started out as seeming pretty damn reasonable in an era when, not just Germany but the US, the UK, France, Russia, you name it, all regarded Jewish people, particularly Jewish businesses, with suspicion. Why shouldn't people have the right to choose where to do business and avoid those they find morally offensive? It's just a badge, right? How badly could it get misused?
In any environment, singling out a group you regard as morally inferior, forcing them to wear badges is generally a slippery slope.
Mix in the US government's current belief that it has the right to censor websites not just within the US but globally is their registrar is US based. Now what happens when a good [religion of your choice] president gets voted in and, pandering to his voter base, promised to disable .xxx. Now you've not only handed users the ability to easily filter their own content, you've handed politicians from a single nation the ability to globally switch off porn because they feel it's "bad."
How would America's gun lobby react if we ghettoized all gun related websites to .gun or .violence? How would our moral minority respond if we pushed all religious sites over to .religion? Of course, this being the US these days, .muslim would probably be plenty. How would the politicians supporting .xxx respond if all of their campaigning was forced to .politics and a flick of a browser switch could hide their campaigns from people? A lot more people are killed in the name of guns or of religion or of politics, a lot more lives ruined, than porn achieves. Yet the same people who support .xxx would freak over their interests being treated the same way.
Porn is legitimate.
the point of .xxx is censorship. mainly censorship by whoever owns the system.
And any domain with your copyright in the name will be turned over to you through normal court process. Something I don't agree with, but there you are.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Perhaps we'll be able to talk to females when Slashdot.xxx goes live!
They seem to think that porn isn't already legitimate.
Isn't porn already legit?
commercial entities. Isn't that what .com was supposed to represent? I agree that .xxx is strictly for ease of censorship. If they are going down the path of identifying industries past .gov why not have mcdonalds.food burgerking.food etc.
I hope this example helps illustrate how companies like this are under the influence from individuals and organizations who aren't looking to help the online community.
and look forward to the day i can type any randomword.xxx and see something NFSW quickly randomly and easily
Has EVERYONE forgotten about .mobi and .travel? There ARE already industry specific TLD's and they failed dismally. In fact, I am in the industry and when I asked at fairly high level people why .xxx was expected to go any better then .travel and .mobi it was awfully silent.
INCLUDING about the claim "well if nobody wants it the price will just drop" with the question "But you invested a fortune in lobbying so you will then just give up instead of using your bought politicians to mandate porn sites to buy an XXX domain".
Baby steps. First you register the jews, then you make them identifiable, well you know the rest. Godwin? Yes absolutely, it is not about the eradiction of undesirables BUT the .xxx domain has some very odd supporters. Lots of politicians that would dearly love to see porn gone (and freedom of expression) supported the .xxx domain. Why? I think a phase 2 might happen maybe not by design but by the business behind it who spend a fortune getting this wanting to make sure it succeeds. Again with Godwin but do you think the census takers at IBM who recorded the faith of people in Germany knew the final solution?
Anyway, ICANN has long been thinking about launching endless TLD's. Think .gun or .apple is bad? How about .paris and .washington? Each town, their own TLD, every business their own TLD.
.xxx is an experiment. Not so much about whether their is a market but how a market can be forcible created.
A lot of people think they can get .xxx to work for them, it is sold to some porn companies as in that the .xxx domain will be more legit so they can get better deals with mainstream business for advertising... yes, they really are that stupid.
Playboy had no problem getting mainstream advertising but most porn sites are a squalid dirty mag that even the industry itself would be reluctant to advertise in.
But you can claim you read playboy.COM for the articles. Good luck doing that with playboy.xxx
For decades the industry has attempted to seem legit, that they are just a business, just like Playboy is. And now a lot of them think the best way to do that is cover their faces in the cum of the .xxx tld. Yeah, that will work. Why not wear a star and paint your face black (the only difference between Germany and the US is that you don't need to get blacks to wear anything to tell them apart. People can just tell it seems. Must be the big noses)
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Just register microsoft.xxx, their lawyers will explain it to you, while they rip you a new one in court.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The xxx moniker originated as a marking indicating poison. It's origins are essentially rooted in being attached to something that is detrimental to a person. Some porn is healthy and good, I'm not linking any links but there's a huge push in the porn industry toward videotaping healthy people who love each other having fantastic sex. Not to mention all the studies showing that those who wank are happier people.
I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. - Hunter S. Thompson
They are a pay porn site, even if you get off on the previews only.
Learn to love Alaska
I've never seen anyone disprove the slippery slope fallacy. Yes, it's a logical fallacy, but not a historical one, where the slippery slope tends to become true. While the parent post used the Nazis as an example, there are plenty of other examples as well - the opponents of artificial birth control argued that making it widely available would result in increased promiscuity and out-of-wedlock births, and sure enough, that happened in the US.
lol you're old. go crawl into your grave old man.
I took high school in the late 90s. Our teacher of was giving the class instructions on how to use the internet to look things up, view websites ect. and the whole class was following along as her screen was projected on the wall screen. We were on the subject of government websites and she typed in 'www.whitehouse.com'. And there is a picture of a look alike Bill Clinton, a blond bombshell to the left and a hot brunette to the right, nude licking the side of his face with his man-hood in hand. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehouse.com
There is a place outside whatever country you reside in. That place usually has totally different laws and a different government. There are about 400 different governments out there. Each of those has their own views on what is or isn't porn and if they should actually do something with that knowledge.
Not only that, but having your government decide on what's good for you, isn't considered "free". I'm assuming you live in the USA and not in the former DDR, North Korea or mainland China. Why on earth would you want the government to decide on what is porn and if it is, or is not appropriate to be watched by minors? Parents and the minors themselves usually are capable enough to make decisions on what's good for them or not by themselves, not?
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Who says there's a 5 day grace period on .xxx or any other domain? There are plenty enough TLDs that don't have this irritating feature.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Making a 100% barrier is not the point.
A certain amount of self-regulation will occur, and that will be better than the present.
The companies and schools that get excited about their names being used in the .xxx domain, well, if they get excited about such things, let them pay for the blocking move.
Internet users who see "washington.edu" and "washington-edu.xxx" in a browser that doesn't hide the TLD are going to be aware that the latter is not the former.
The .xxx domain is not the best solution theoretically possible, but I don't have any real hope that all internet users will suddenly figure out how to keep their libidos in check.
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
Why is it ".xxx" and not ".sex"?
If you can afford to worry that potential customers of yourdomain.com would be confused by the existence of yourdomain.xxx, you can probably afford to buy the domain as a blocking fee.
Although I am sure there will be some abuse, some anti-fsf folks plastering the domain name, "fsf.xxx" all over the place. Such behavior will usually boomerang, as well.
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
Boy, wait until they hear about what the internet is really for.
However, just make it part of the equal(sic) that the person buying the sight(sic) intends to us it as porn. That way the purchases will be using their definition.
So, how do you intend to find out the "true intentions" of some other person?
In criminal proceedings "intent to ..." is when you're punished for criminal acts you didn't commit (".. yet", says the prosecution .. and guess who the judge is going to side with..).
It would make much more sense for ICANN to accept registration of a domain by name and then they just register the subdomains while the main domain is held unregulated by the owner. This would yield proper operation of Slashdot's domain of SLASHDOT.ORG to be organized as a service of http://org.slashdot/ in structure. By ICANN registering Slashdot as the domain then it would be reserved to Slashdot for not only ORG but also COM and NET and all the others. It just makes more sense.
This is not about 100% regulation, although there are good odds that there will be some attempts in the courts. 100% or nothing rhetoric like what you're spouting will make it all the more likely that pornprohibitionists will try stupid court tricks.
This is about establishing a better base-line for self-regulation.
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
Porn is awesome!
Well you were pretty quick with your weird version of "one finger typing"
Clue: It wasn't his finger
I've always been of the opinion that no TLDs other than country codes should have ever existed. Might have kept things a little more civil. Might not have, too, of course. $0.02, ptd
I'm an animal lover -- they're delicious!
Using a .xxx TLD makes it that much easier to identify and filter porn if you don't want to see it.
My response: "No, it doesn't, and here's a 7000-word, peer-reviewed article---written by people who understand how the Internet works---that explains why."
Your response: "Yeah, but, if we lived in Magical Faerie Land where the Internet didn't work that way, this would be a great idea! Also, that article is just somebody's opinion. I won't mention any specific objections to it, and I probably haven't read it except for its title."
At least not until there is universal agreement on just what is porn. Forget dicks and boobs, in some areas of the world an uncovered woman's face is considered obscene.c
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
Extortion is when someone tells you "do this for me, or else I will do this bad thing to you." In this situation, there's no bad thing done. If someone elects to not pay the $200, the consequences are ...
Anything can be used to actively exploit and damage the names of respected businesses and organizations. I can register hot-chicks-of-disney.com right now and show you photos of who is really in the Goofy suit. I don't even need to register a domain name to do it; I can use Slashdot.org for it by writing a little story.
Nobody needs .xxx. It's an offer and a poor one. The consequences of declining the offer change nothing.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
If the porn industry would have self regulated this wouldn't be happening and i don't feel the slightest bit sorry for them. All they had to do was rate there own sites/content and make it searchable done. Parents are happy,grand parents are happy. Anti porn people will never be happy until any kinda adult content isn't allowed. And anti censorship will never be happey unless we have billboards along the highway of animal sex and forced anal sex on whoever doesnt want it.
Jack of all trades,master of none
And thank you for not being a lazy excuse of a parent and spending your time with your kids.
It'd be so much better for both children and the Internet if they were separate from each other.
They are a pay porn site, even if you get off on the previews only.
Again: Who said anything about paying?
Nobody. But that doesn't change the fact that they are a pay porn site.
Learn to love Alaska
Nobody. But that doesn't change the fact that they are a pay porn site.
And that doesn't change the fact that you don't need to pay to access their content.
I just tried, and I do need to pay to access their content, unless you know some back-door access to their site, clicking on a video only goes to a "signup" link without displaying the content. They claim to be a pay site, and all but still previews of their content are behind a paywall. So again, I'm confused as to what you are asserting. Perhaps you'll say next that everything in Wal-Mart is free because you can go in the store and touch it without having paid for it, even if you can't use it or take it with you.
Learn to love Alaska