.xxx Red Light District To Be Approved, Despite Complaints; But Will Anyone Actually Care?

from the doubtful dept

Tue, Jun 29th 2010 9:38pm — Mike Masnick

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.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: .xxx, domain names

22 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 29 Jun 2010 @ 9:45pm

at $70 per domain, and with little actual support in the porn community, the .xxx extension is a dead end before it leaves the gate, doomed to be about as useful as .info and the like. any attempt by government(s) to stick porn into a .xxx ghetto will be met by lawsuits from all over, including christian groups who do not want to give porn and legitimate standing in the law.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Alan Gerow (profile), 29 Jun 2010 @ 10:04pm

Major corporations will likely feel they're in the uncomfortable position of having to purchase .xxx domains to protect their trademarks or just to prevent someone from getting the .xxx version of their domain and putting up unscrupulous content.

Microsoft.xxx ... that could be a lot of fun.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Trerro, 29 Jun 2010 @ 10:07pm

This could be a mess
I could see a forced .xxx thing being a HUGE problem for things like literary archives. There's stories that are clearly porn, and stories that clearly aren't, but there's a very large in between area.

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
sam, 29 Jun 2010 @ 10:17pm

someone explain to me how forcing all porn into a .xxx domain but not allowing isp's to block them from adults and customers is bad? seems to me would make life easier.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
fogbugzd (profile), 29 Jun 2010 @ 10:35pm

Re:
The first problem would be defining porn.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Jun 2010 @ 10:37pm

Re:
legal basis for "forcing" them into a .xxx domain?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Sal, 29 Jun 2010 @ 10:42pm

I can't see why .xxx was created. There really is no point, except to open up some url space. However, I also can't see why anyone would object to .xxx. The argument that it legitimizes porn is silly. Porn has been around longer than Christianity. Does that make the religion less legit than porn?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Jun 2010 @ 10:44pm

Look at the bright side; when a kid is looking for porn and hits a .xxx, he definitely found it!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Jun 2010 @ 11:11pm

Re:
Google.xxx the true use of Google
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Jun 2010 @ 11:35pm

hey .info isnt so bad, if you need a cheap domain and don't care if you never get outside visitors.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
PaulT (profile), 29 Jun 2010 @ 11:55pm

Re:
Can you explain why you think anything's being forced into the new TLD?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
PaulT (profile), 30 Jun 2010 @ 12:05am

Re: Re:
Oh, and just in case I misinterpred your original comment, and you meant why don't people just do that, the argument is that it's literally impossible to make sure that every porn site goes onto .xxx

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).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Jun 2010 @ 4:18am

This TLD is going to be used only by spammers and scammers.

Which means everybody will block it, not to block pornography, but for security reasons.

Giving one more reason no legitimate operation will use it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Berenerd (profile), 30 Jun 2010 @ 5:38am

Oh yeah baby...
I am so registering Worldofwarecraft.xxx...cause the internet is for porn...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 30 Jun 2010 @ 5:50am

Re:
Did he? Is there a limitation that I didn't see that requires all .xxx domains to be for porn? Once it goes on the market, I was going to look into getting one since all the short names should be open. Unless AC #1 is right and they're charging $70 per domain. I didn't see anything about that, but people like taking advantage of the porn industry, so I wouldn't put it past them.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Greg G, 30 Jun 2010 @ 6:00am

Re: Re:
the true use of Google? what?

So you think Google search results only bring up porn? If so, then that's all you're searching for.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
NAMELESS ONE, 30 Jun 2010 @ 6:01am

freedom of expression
freedom again gets destroyed if anything is forced.
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Jun 2010 @ 6:24am

Re:
"someone explain to me how forcing all porn into a .xxx domain but not allowing isp's to block them from adults and customers is bad? seems to me would make life easier." - once you mark everything with a crimson x, it is easy to block, control, or otherwise filter it.

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 1 Jul 2010 @ 5:15am

xxx
[ link to this | view in thread ]
btr1701 (profile), 3 Jul 2010 @ 10:17am

Re: This could be a mess
> I could see a forced .xxx thing being a HUGE problem for things like
> 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?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Redlight Sextrips, 12 Sep 2010 @ 6:07am

>>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?

And this is probably one of the biggest problems! Besides that fact that every child know where to search for porn now!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Kurto (profile), 22 Mar 2011 @ 3:08am

Re: Re:
Apparently the registration fee is true - in fact ign quotes $75 rather than $70
http://uk.gear.ign.com/articles/115/1156888p1.html?
[ link to this | view in thread ]