December 5, 2005 | Sex & Society

Dot-xxx stalls -- again!

The much-criticized dot-xxx domain proposed for porn sites has been placed on hold yet again by the  Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

ICANN President Paul Twomey announced Thursday that the group is still awaiting recommendations from its Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), which was appointed to review the idea. Originally scheduled for discussion last week at an ICANN meeting in Vancouver, Twomey says the topic was removed from the agenda in order to give the GAC more time to consider the issue.

The company behind dot-xxx, ICM Registry Inc., says it would make finding -- and filtering -- porn on the Internet easier for consumers who want to either look at it or block it. ICANN Chairman Vincent Cerf blames ICM for the delay, however. He told AVN that he tabled the issue because ICM failed to provide a requested report on its proposal to the GAC in a timely manner.

More likely: ICANN is getting cold feet. While it announced in June that it would move forward on plans to evaluate the domain proposal, the idea has been enveloped in controversy ever since.

Some conservative groups and their friends in the Bush administration fear that dot-xxx will simply be another way for porn merchants to distribute their wares and that having a domain just for porn provides it with an air of legitimacy it doesn't deserve.

On the other side of the coin, current dot-com adult website owners have no use for the new domain. While they would still have to maintain their current dot-com addresses they would also have to pay for the corresponding dot-xxx domain just to keep another company from using it.

Given that the only remaining champion of dot-xxx is ICM Registry itself, which at $75 per year per domain registration would stand to reap enormous profits from its approval, ICANN's reticence is not surprising.  

Previously: Why dot-xxx sucks ;Dot-xxx decision delayed

• ICANN removes dot-xxx from agenda, cites GAC concern [AVN]
• No decision yet on ".xxx" domain [MSNBC - Reuters]
• President of ICANN: no decision on .XXX this week [YNOT]
• ICANN kills .xxx porn domain [The Register]