EU Tried To Get US To Force ICANN To Delay .xxx Domain

from the can-this-please-just-end... dept

Fri, May 6th 2011 3:56am — Mike Masnick

The years long (and, at times, totally contradictory) fight over .xxx shows no signs of letting up, even though ICANN has approved the TLD, despite protests from various countries. Apparently European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, specifically stepped in and asked the US government to delay the implementation of .xxx so that the EU could prepare a way to try to stop the TLD. Thankfully, the White House told Kroes that, even if it doesn't agree with the decision to move forward on .xxx, ICANN is supposed to be independent and stepping in and going against the organization could do more harm than good.

Of course, part of what's amusing is that part of Kroes' reasoning for asking the US to step in is that so many others have been trying to get the management of the domain system moved out of ICANN and into a UN body, in part because they don't trust ICANN being under the control of the US government. She argues that ICANN's decision to go through with .xxx only gives more fodder to those who wish to get rid of ICANN. Of course, couldn't the same be true if the US stepped in and asserted its power to block ICANN? If anything, it seems like that would lead others to scream even louder about how ICANN is a sham and it's all really run by the US government.

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Filed Under: .xxx, delay, eu, icann
Companies: icann

22 Comments

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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 6 May 2011 @ 4:59am

I still want a .xxx domain name
Non profit organizations have .org, but they can still use a .com. I don't really see a problem with the adult industry having .xxx, but can still use .com or whatever. AS LONG AS THAT'S WHERE THEY LEAVE IT.

Granted, it is just a giant money grab by ICANN. I can only see two uses for Walmart.xxx, and since ICANN requires the preorder to be by those who own the name already, guess who's getting it.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2011 @ 5:23am

Ok, seriously, why fight over the ".xxx" TLD, when we can have the much more efficient ".x^3" TLD domain?

(I would've save one character, but Techdirt doesn't allow superscript. I think Techdirt's bias against efficient representation of math-related URLs is obvious here)
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Cipher-0, 6 May 2011 @ 5:24am

Problem?
The .xxx TLD is a solution to a problem that simply does not exist, unless that problem is registrars needing more TLDs to sell for six times the usual price.

Anyone who expects Hoppy's House of Pr0n to move all its sites to the .xxx TLD is either deluded or stupid.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2011 @ 5:25am

Re:
"...TLD domain"

...ATM Machine...PIN number...

Honest mistake...
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Richard (profile), 6 May 2011 @ 6:34am

Re: Re:
HIV virus
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Ralph-J (profile), 6 May 2011 @ 6:37am

National-level TLD blocking threatens internet stability?
I don't mean to defend ICANN's money grab, but where is the evidence for Kroes's claims?

And those parents that know how to "filter .xxx domain names", will more than likely know about the other naughty sources as well.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2011 @ 6:59am

Couldn't resist....
If anything, it seems like that would lead others to scream even louder about how ICANN is a sham and it's all really run by the US government.

ICANN IS A SHAM AND IT'S ALL REALLY RUN BY THE US GOVERNMENT!!

...

Or perhaps more likely just as greedy and inevitably self-centered as most major corporations coupled with a total spinelessness (again much like most major corporations) when it comes to caving in to the US government demanding something of dubious legality.
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 6 May 2011 @ 7:42am

Time to start up a new panic site
www.wontsomebodythinkofthechildren.xxx
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Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2011 @ 8:00am

Re: Problem?
When I read your post's title a trollface image popped into my head.
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Chris, 6 May 2011 @ 8:19am

irony
So the EU is wants to get rid of ICANN because they're worried the US government is in too much control of it... so because they believe their own fears, they believe they can ask the US government to exert control over ICANN, who responds with "We don't control ICANN, so we can't act on your desire to control ICANN"

It's not even noon and you've managed to give me a headache already, thanks.
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Josef Anvil (profile), 6 May 2011 @ 8:21am

If there ever was a non-issue...
I can't think of much that is less important to debate.

The .xxx TLD makes 100% PERFECT sense. I would think the porn industry would be pleased to have its own TLD. I guess from the industry viewpoint it's a problem, but from the consumer point of view, it looks great!
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Qritiqal (profile), 6 May 2011 @ 8:22am

Re: I still want a .xxx domain name
I have dibs on anonymouscoward.xxx
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Trails (profile), 6 May 2011 @ 8:36am

Re: Problem?
Agreed. Some claim the point of .xxx is to segregate porn or make it easier to filter. That's absurd on its face (all over its face, har har).

The point of .xxx is really to establish a TLD that there's a market for. The fact that anyone offended by porn can fairly easily block the entire TLD undermines any "think of the children" type arguments, but while porn on .xxx is easy to segregate and block, online porn will never be easy to block. camgirls.com will not suddenly become a site about women in photography.

.xxx will not lead to more porn, greater porn availability for minors, it will simply offer more domain names for sale to porn providers. It will have 0 effect on supply, demand or availability of porn.
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The eejit (profile), 6 May 2011 @ 8:38am

Re: Re:
And from the uselessly redundant category....ANONYMOUS COWARD!!!!
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Trails (profile), 6 May 2011 @ 8:45am

Re: Re:
Look, just cause TLA acronyms are confusing FTP people, doesn't mean their pieces of POS.

FYI information, I'm surprised this is coming from the EU union. Europe has a reputation for liberalness. Claims like porn promotes the spread of STD diseases(did they make this claim? I didn't RTFA article) is what you'd expect from the GOP party, not the EC commissioner.

Anyways, it's nice to see the US states govt pushing back, instead of trying to manipulate ICANN corporation, for once, for ffs.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2011 @ 9:44am

Re: If there ever was a non-issue...
It always looks great from the customer point of view. . .

Giggity!
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Billy Wenge-Murphy (profile), 6 May 2011 @ 1:37pm

Re: I still want a .xxx domain name
I want to be the first one to have a non-pornographic .xxx
The hipster in me craves to use .xxx ironically.
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bagas, 6 May 2011 @ 6:23pm

Re: Re: Re:
ertyyiddhjjs
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Josh Stein, 6 May 2011 @ 6:53pm

why
Why did ICANN approve .XXX? There needs to be an investigation

already. ICANN went against everyone accept the company ICM

and approved .XXX. How did this happen! Does anything in the

US govt. work anymore? Really? We need to know whats going

on with ICANN cause their out of control!
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عادل, 9 May 2011 @ 6:08am

Re: Couldn't resist....
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hjtgirdf8rbkhvjt, 11 May 2011 @ 3:02am

Re: National-level TLD blocking threatens internet stability?
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Tanfur, 17 Oct 2011 @ 5:24pm

End of Story?
An old, old convention in short story formatting, is to have at the end, not "END" but "XXX", or "=XXX=", to indicate there are no more pages, but not be part of the text. It even morphed into "=30=" for some writers. I was in a writing group where one writer used that convention.

So having .XXX TLD available should really be the End of the Story!
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