.xxx Red Light District To Be Approved, Despite Complaints; But Will Anyone Actually Care?
from the doubtful dept
This isn't much of a surprise given the convoluted history of the .xxx domain -- including meddling by the US government -- but it appears that after all of these years, the domain is set to be approved. It doesn't seem like anyone's happy about this -- for conflicting reasons -- which was why there was so much controversy over it in the first place. Some religious groups fear that this is "legitimizing" porn, while some porn sites fear that they're going to be required to operate in the .xxx domain. Of course, porn is already legitimized and it would be nearly impossible to require porn sites to operate in that domain, so it seems like both sides have little to fear. As Wired notes in the link above, the reality will probably be that the domain -- like so many modern top-level domains will mostly be ignored or become home to more shady operators that most people know to avoid.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: .xxx, domain names
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Microsoft.xxx ... that could be a lot of fun.
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So you think Google search results only bring up porn? If so, then that's all you're searching for.
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This could be a mess
Even more importantly, a lot of sites allow porn on them without in any way being porn sites. Look at something like Newgrounds for instance - there's definitely porn on there, and it's not against site rules (as long as it's labeled as such), but it's a very tiny minority of the content, and really not the main purpose of the site.
I doubt they'll try to force it though, because has already been pointed out, the idiots that would want to force it can't without "legitimizing" it, so I think the AC above me hit the nail on the head. It's just going to be another pointless TLD like .info and .biz.
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Re: This could be a mess
> literary archives.
Not to mention the practical considerations of enforcement. Who's passing the law that would require this? The USA? Okay, so if I'm operating a site in Brazil, what do I care what the US says?
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Not to mention that there would also be an unresolvable debate over what constituted "porn" (e.g. hardcore vs. softcore, non-hentai anime, sequences in some music videos, etc. would be called porn by some).
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for christian groups, if the government mandated all adult material be on .xxx, it would be like saying it is legal and acceptable. regulation by definition creates legality. they dont want that.
for porn purveyors, they dont want to fenced into a small ghetto that can be disabled. here is a great example: you push all the porn onto .xxx, and then isp start blocking it except for those users who ask for it to be opened on their system. to get this done, you are required to sending in id proving your adult, and sign a form saying "i want access to porn on my system". many people would choose not to do this, effectively limiting legal free speech.
further, isps could charge extra for access to .xxx, which people might decline to do, once again limiting free speech.
third party data transit providers (you know, all those jumps) could choose not to provide transit for .xxx domains. christian controlled companies could do it, etc.
most importantly, this would start to create the internet as little packages, things that could easily be turned on and turned off. next would be .torrent sites, again easily blocked. do you see where it goes?
for the moment, .xxx is a tld with no teeth, no legal obligation for anyone to go there, no different from .mobi and the like. thank god for that.
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http://uk.gear.ign.com/articles/115/1156888p1.html?
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Which means everybody will block it, not to block pornography, but for security reasons.
Giving one more reason no legitimate operation will use it.
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Oh yeah baby...
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freedom of expression
LETS say they force it and any porn no matter whethar its a bare breast or a butt cheek OR just a women or man in underwear gets forced there.
THEN the think of the children get stupid and just ban it all.
YEAAAAAA. no more probs right?
encrypted traffic won't stop you form trading or watching nor will private site either. ALL it does do is create more hassles and attempts to regulate an almost unregulatable society. ON thre rtek to try they will make it virtually impossible to get any pron , even legal....enjoy the USA CHRISTIAN RIGHT WING TERRORISM on your rights.
AND just when you think Christians are to be loved maybe for doing this they appoint that Canadian to ROME who has potential abuse issues.....trying to get him away form media and stuff the issue under a rug.
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xxx
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And this is probably one of the biggest problems! Besides that fact that every child know where to search for porn now!
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