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2007's Lisbon meeting was the last time the ICANN board voted against .XXX (pictured here, on the left, is current chair Peter Dengate Thrush, who had not yet replaced Vint Cerf at the time). Photo SVG.

I'd actually almost forgotten about .XXX, or "dot triple ex" as it's so often called. I won't go over the details of the Internet's proposed extension for the adult industry's sad and sorry saga, except to remind everyone that .XXX was one of the new extensions considered by ICANN as part of the last (2003) round of new gTLDs – the same that has given us the .MOBIs, .ASIAs and .TELs of this world.

Where the story got interesting was that .XXX was actually initially approved by ICANN's board in 2005. That approval was later rescinded as ICANN apparently gave in to what .XXX sponsor ICM Registry claimed was US government pressure and intervention.

Having already invested millions, the man behind ICM Registry, British entrepreneur Stuart Lawley, was never going to give up easily. And it soon became clear that the battle for .XXX would move out of Internet governance circles and into the courts.

Threatening lawsuits against ICANN, ICM got the Board to look at .XXX again. And that's where we last left .XXX: with yet another resounding NO from the ICANN board at the Lisbon, Portugal meeting, in early 2007.