Domain '.xxx' Approved for Web Porn Sites

[Jazzy]

SAN FRANCISCO -- You've heard of .com and .org. Joining them soon will be their bawdy cousin: .xxx.



On Friday, the board of directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees the Internet's naming system, approved the creation of a red-light district online for pornographic websites. It follows a decade-long battle over such a name.



Pornographers worry it will ghettoize their sites. Although it's meant to be voluntary, they fear governments could try to mandate the domain's use, so that pornographic content is more easily blocked.



Diane Duke, executive director of the adult entertainment industry's Free Speech Coalition, said in a statement that ICANN has disregarded overwhelming outpouring of opposition from the adult entertainment industry - the supposed sponsorship community and dismissed the interests of free speech on the Internet.



Supporters have maintained that approving the domain is in keeping with the principle of openness that has fueled the Internet's growth.



While the idea of .xxx has provoked a philosophical debate, for the U.S. company that submitted the application for the domain, the issue is little more than a matter of dollars and cents.



ICM Registry and its CEO, Stuart Lawley, who has led the fight for ICANN's approval of .xxx, stand to profit handsomely from the rollout of .xxx websites - because he will be in charge of collecting fees for the use of the new domains.



Lawley plans to charge registrars $60 per year for the domain names. He estimates that he could sell as many as 500,000 by the time he rolls them out this summer.

Link: http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/18/domain-xxx-approved-for-web-porn-sites/

 

[Flurry]

60 bucks huh? I'm sure some of the bigger sites out there can handle that.

 

[Evil Eye]

So they're finally going through with this... Wonder if it'll actually become common.

 

[dannn]

I don't see what the problem is, a website doesn't have to use (or if they do buy) don't have to promote using the .xxx domain extension. To be honest using it at all is no big deal as many people won't know it exists until more and more sites start using it.