Construction of ICANN's Red Light District Put On Hold

from the no-porn-for-you dept

ICANN's plans to implement a .xxx domain are in limbo after their consideration was removed from the agenda of a meeting, with no word on when or if they'd be brought up again. There's been plenty of controversy since the plans were initially approved back in June (as there have been since it was devised years ago), and it's unclear just why it's been dropped. The official line is that ICANN's governmental advisory committee needs more time to review a 350-page report on .xxx that was released only this week, even though it was completed in August, but rumors say there was some high-level intervention from an EU commissioner, but the safer bet would be on pressure from the US government, whose conservative allies aren't happy with the idea of a porn-only domain. If the latter is true, it's certain to raise more questions about US government control of the Internet, and ICANN in particular.
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  • identicon
    dorpus, 1 Dec 2005 @ 1:28pm

    World's Majority Opinion

    In the rhetoric of Western media, anti-obscenity laws are invariably labelled "neo-conservative", "puritan", or "Bush". But what if the vast majority of the world's population, including Latin Americans, Africans, Muslims, Indians, Chinese, etc. think that pornography should be outlawed too?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      jszpila, 1 Dec 2005 @ 1:47pm

      Re: World's Majority Opinion

      giving porn sites a TLD and outlawing it are two completely different things.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        dorpus, 1 Dec 2005 @ 2:07pm

        Re: World's Majority Opinion

        Not really. After all, would people support a .pedo domain? Giving it a domain legitimizes its existence.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          discojohnson, 1 Dec 2005 @ 2:11pm

          Re: World's Majority Opinion

          yes, but .pedo is illegal everywhere, whereas pornography is not. i don't know the illegality of it everywhere, but show me somewhere that it is real and i'll show you one fcuked up nation.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            dorpus, 1 Dec 2005 @ 2:17pm

            Re: World's Majority Opinion

            Pornography is illegal in most of the world's countries. The small number of countries where they are legal have serious problems with drug abuse, declining economies, and high divorce rates. Most people in the world do not want to live in societies where women walk around in skimpy clothing, the media is full of perverted disgusting imagery, kids don't respect adults and take drugs all the time.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

            • identicon
              jszpila, 1 Dec 2005 @ 2:30pm

              Re: World's Majority Opinion

              whoa, i think you have a really bad case of misattribution. you should see a doctor about that.

              link to this | view in chronology ]

            • identicon
              Aaron Friel, 2 Dec 2005 @ 4:47am

              Re: World's Majority Opinion

              Prudish!
              Legal places:
              Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway (distribution is kind of unusual, internet is OK, buying in stores is not OK), Russia (unclear laws + lack of enforcement from Soviet era), Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.
              Illegal places: Indonesia (has problems with child rape, kidnapping, 'child sex rings', etc.), Malaysia (many similar problems but scaled down), Singapore (they also banned chewing gum).

              An incomplete list at best, but most of the western world and over 1.5 billion people in Asia have said 'Yes' to pornography.

              I think the only thing missing is for the prudes to start ranting about places that don't even have laws related to pornography because walking around in the nude is considered perfectly acceptable.

              link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Haggie, 1 Dec 2005 @ 3:41pm

      Re: World's Majority Opinion

      If the "vast majority" of the world wanted pornography outlawed, why is Internet pornography the biggest and easiest money-making online venture? There is this crazy new concept called "supply and demand"...

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        dorpus, 1 Dec 2005 @ 7:12pm

        Re: World's Majority Opinion

        You could say the same of drugs or other lucrative contraband businesses, but it doesn't change the fact that most of the world wants them outlawed.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Jimmy, 1 Dec 2005 @ 9:04pm

          Re: World's Majority Opinion

          Right on. Just because pornography is a multi-billion dollar ordeal doesn't mean that the majority of people want it. There are plenty of us who are lured into it by our own lusts, but wish to God we were free from it.

          This won't happen probably, but if we had an .xxx area for porn and mandated that all pornographic material within this country had to be moved therein by a certain time I think that'd be great. Anyone caught with pornographic material in a domain outside of .xxx would be prosecuted with some sort of public obscenity charge.

          I'm just thinking out loud here...

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Dec 2005 @ 2:18pm

    XXX domain would be a good thing

    Personally I believe that more governmental controls over online Porn would be a good thing. But the truth is, more control is not ever going to happen. For two reasons, one the US government is not going to be able to control sites based out of other nations no matter how many laws they pass, and two the US courts have made their opinion on regulating porn pretty clear by shooting down most laws that had any teeth. This is unfortunate, but it is the world we live in.
    So I really think that putting the Porn industry on it's own domain would be a good thing. If it was all on a single domain, then it would make it easier for parents to block access. Those who wanted it could easily find it, and everyone would be happier.
    The reason the conservative movement does not want to endorse this, is because it would give Porn a type of legitimacy. Most conservative leaders still believe that with the right combination of laws, they can eradicate porn entirely.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Dec 2005 @ 3:21pm

    Former, Latter.... It's all the Same

    "...but rumors say there was some high-level intervention from an EU commissioner, but the safer bet would be on pressure from the US government, whose conservative allies aren't happy with the idea of a porn-only domain. If the former is true, it's certain to raise more questions about US government control of the Internet, and ICANN in particular."

    I think he meant "the latter" but hopefully us slashdotters can figure that out.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 1 Dec 2005 @ 3:53pm

      Re: Former, Latter.... It's all the Same

      I think he meant "the latter" but hopefully us slashdotters can figure that out.

      Whoops. You're right. I fixed it for Carlo. Thanks for pointing it out.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    CloakedMirror, 2 Dec 2005 @ 5:18am

    Conservatives against it???

    As one that many would consider hardline conservative, I must say that I find the idea of a TLD that serves as a "red-light district" for the internet to be a great idea.
    I am against almost all forms of censorship, and I find the pornography industry to be offensive. I think that creation of the .xxx TLD has the best chance for allowing both views to be reconciled in some way. It allows those sites to continue existing (not censorship), and provides me with a more convient way of applying filters that keep my children off those sites (until they are able to hack my router).

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Jimmy, 2 Dec 2005 @ 10:52am

      Re: Conservatives against it???

      That's right, the only big issue would be enforcing those sites that provide porn anyway outside of .xxx

      Cuz if we have this .xxx, but people continue to put porn on whatever other domain anyway, then you still have all the same issues you have now with filters that don't block half the junk, plus you have .xxx too.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    mike-ish, 5 Dec 2005 @ 7:59pm

    definition please

    One point that has not been brought up is how do we define pornography? Is it the amount of clothing that the woman (or man for that matter) is wearing? Is it depictions of sexual acts?
    You say pornographic, I say artistic/
    You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous KKKoward, 27 May 2006 @ 5:22pm

    Anonymous Coward sucks the dick for coke...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Catz, 17 Aug 2006 @ 2:29pm

    Worlds Oppinion

    Just found this. Interesting that no one has addressed the issue of who defines what exactly porn is? Untill such a time, what then would be found on this site? I understand that the "gross" definition of porn material would be there but then would we eventually also find things that were once considered great works of art there as well? Untill we all can agree to a clear deffinition on a global scale we run the risk of unleashing a Pandora's box of contraversial issues.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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