Quote:
Originally Posted by broots
Could somebody point me to the relevant article that stipulates that .XXX would be regulated once it is allowed as a TLD? Sounds to me that .XXX is more of an "opt-in" kind of deal and that being said, nothing more than a money-grab for the associated registrar (like .info, for example). I doubt that ICANN will ever become instrumental in regulating content.
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As far as I am aware there is no such actual plan in place to make .xxx mandatory if it is allowed to pass. ICM (the people trying to get it to pass) have even said they strongly oppose that happening and would set aside some of the money that they earn from selling the domains to fight anything like that. So if it is allowed to pass and .xxx is born at first it will be nothing more than another TLD just like .com, .net, .ca and so on.
Where the worry comes into play is with the US government. They love making statements and what better statement then to pass a law mandating that all porn sites have to reside on a .xxx. Of course only about half the sites on the web are owned by people in the US so there would still be many sites that didn't have to follow that rule. Icann would not have to be involved at all. It would be pretty simple. They find a porn site that is not on .xxx, find out who owns it and if they are US based, bust them. There could also be a very simple step from there to force ISPs to block the .xxx by default and make people call into the ISPs and request that they be given access to it. Most people would not because they would be too embarrased to call up their cable company and tell them they want access to porn, especially since there would still be plenty of porn out there from Non-US based sites.
This is all worst case scenario, but things like this are often a slippery slope and once you go down that road it is hard to turn back so it is best to avoid the first step all together if possible.