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New dot-xxx domain proposal
The way the proposed .xxx registry would work is twofold. Lawley's company, ICM Registry, would handle the technical aspects of running the master database of .xxx sex sites. For its troubles, it would charge $60 a domain name and let resellers add their own markup of perhaps $10 to $15 per domain. A second, nonprofit organization, the International Foundation for Online Responsibility would be in charge of setting the rules for .xxx. It would have a seven-person board of directors, including a child advocacy advocate, a free-expression aficionado, and, naturally, at least one person from the adult entertainment industry. As president and chairman of ICM Registry, Lawley gives himself just one vote on the board. The article also rehearses longstanding concerns over an adults-only TLD. The problem, in other words, is that as soon as .xxx launches, conservatives in Congress will begin to clamor for laws to make the domain mandatory for sex-related Web sites. That may not be a big deal for hard-core pornmeisters who prefer that virtual street address, but what about sex education sites that include explicit graphics and don't wish to be blocked by filtering software? Or sex blogs, for that matter? But the ACLU's real concerns with the proposal lie overseas. "There are nations all over the world that will undoubtedly try to force Web sites into the .xxx (top-level domain) or to block Web sites in it that they somehow view as offensive," Steinhardt said. "I don't think the operators have taken sufficient account of that problem. It will become a worldwide red-light district for the Internet, into which speakers who have free expression rights and should be able to reach a mass audience, will be forced." Even if the free-speech and non-mandatory aspects could be resolved, the proposed $60 surcharge is asinine. Aside from a few catchy single-word domains (teen.xxx, anal.xxx, xxx.xxx, etc), no one's gonna pay $70 for a .xxx domain if .com domains are still $10.
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Declan McCullagh reports on the