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Another nail in .XXX's coffin?
Tuesday, March 18. 2008
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 That approval was later rescinded as ICANN apparently gave in to what .XXX sponsor ICM Registry claimed was US government pressure and intervention.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.
But one way in which Lawley and ICM had managed to get ICANN to look at .XXX again was by invoking America's Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) to force the government to release documents which, it was claimed, showed how the US State had pressured ICANN. ICM obtained partial documental release in 2006, but wanted more to strengthen its case.
But according to News.com, that hope was dashed last week (March 12) when a Washington judge ruled that the government did not have to release any more documents. These include drafts and emails which might indeed have helped shed some light on why ICANN overturned its initial decision to go with .XXX.
Stuart Lawley has often told me that he would never accept this and that his organisation had "deep enough pockets" to keep on fighting. And he does indeed have several legal options left, like appealing this most recent decision, or suing ICANN itself.
But you do have to wonder if even someone as determined as Lawley won't run out of steam or money eventually. I understand Stuart's determination as, whatever your own feelings about an "adult Internet domain", it's quite clear that ICANN was simply wrong in giving a business the go-ahead to invest its time and money in a project, only to later go back on that decision.
But time does seem to be in ICANN's favour on this one. Can it be long before everyone does what I nearly did, and forgets about the stillborn .XXX?
It's crying shame that .xxx wasn't allowed the last time they looked at it in Lisbon. I hope they don't give up the fight! I'd much rather see .xxx than some of the other TLDs people are interested in promoting
Michele
