5 ms·

ICANN Approves Dot-XXX Domain for Porn

38 points by sound 16y ago

civild 16y ago
I can only imagine the kind of domain name land-grab this will invoke. Squatters will be prepping their naughty keywords database in preparation, I suspect.
- Revisor 16y ago
  I think we can assume premium domain names will be sold in a land rush auction, not registered on a first-come-first-serve basis. Similar to e.g. .ASIA or .AM. There may even be different registration fees like .TV has.
- pjscott 16y ago
  I think the cheapest way to get a desirable .xxx domain would be to register a nonsensical domain like "dumptrucking.xxx" and then make it a new term for some sex act. What is "dump trucking"? I don't know, and neither does anybody else -- yet. It's brand-building writ sleazy.
Kilimanjaro 16y ago
sex.xxx the most expensive domain evar
- aniketh 16y ago
  more likely free.xxx
  - rikthevik 16y ago
    se.xxx?
    - gaius 16y ago
      Swedish is a guarantee of quality ;-)
dantheman 16y ago
Complete waste of time and a boondoggle.
po 16y ago
I wish the ICANN would knock it off. TLD's are not an effective way to group websites. They are making the namespace more complex for little or no benefit. Now that the horses are effectively out of the barn, they should just make the TLD registry replace the concept of a domain. Cannon already bought .cannon right?
adolph 16y ago
In other news, domain registrars issued updated guidance on improved earnings...
- code_duck 16y ago
  No doubt, this is a huge money giveaway to whomever will be selling these.
unexpected 16y ago
Can someone explain to me how this helps the Internet ecosystem? If I were a porn site, why would I want this address? Filters, parental controls, etc. are most likely going to block the entire .xxx domain - this would limit page views. History has shown that .com is the most popular TLD - how is .xxx going to help? It seems like an attempt to drum up registrar dollars.
- yock 16y ago
  True, it would limit page views, but don't forget that (for better or worse) there are laws about viewing pornography across most of the country and much of the world as well. At least some of that traffic is coming illegally, and it may be only a matter of time before porn peddlers are held legally liable for that traffic. I think it makes a lot of practical business sense to be able to unequivocably categorize your business.
  - noctrine 16y ago
    I wonder if this would sponsor any relevant legislation. US based sites being forced to this TLD in order to place Liability for Minors on parents.
- cookiecaper 16y ago
  .xxx helps because it allows easier segmentation. xxx sites will be considered "good citizens" for moving over. Filters will block all of them, which is fine because people who'd be filtered significantly (kids) don't have money to spend on this stuff anyway. Others may be filtered only at work but frankly that's a job-saving idea so it keeps money coming in. If you want porn, you know just how to get it; go to any xxx domain out there. If you don't want it, you know how to avoid a larger part of it; don't go to any xxx domain out there. Sounds like it works well to me! No mandatory compliance would ever work, and there will always be porn littered all over these many internets, but .xxx domain will make at least part of it easier to access/avoid, according to the desires of the user and/or its guardians.
  - user24 16y ago
jgrahamc 16y ago
It wouldn't surprise me if the pornography industry didn't completely ignore this TLD. The nature of pornography means that it's possible to be very creative in naming your site. If you look at Alexa's list of the top adult web sites you'd see the following names: livejasmin.com, pornhub.com, xvideos.com, youporn.com, xhamster.com, tube8.com, ... It doesn't look to me like the .com namespace is running out of room for pornography.
- MichaelGG 16y ago
  I would be surprised if every site doesn't immediately get their .xxx out of nervousness. How long until someone puts laws saying porn must be hosted on .xxx "for the children"? Sites using .com could be accused of trying to hide instead of clearly marking their dangerous content. Idiotic, yes. So how probable?
  - sethg 16y ago
    Someone could avoid such a law simply by hosing their .xxx site in another country. And even if every national government agrees that segregating porn on the Net would be a good thing, you’ll never get them all to agree on a standard. In some countries topless women are no big deal, and in others an exposed elbow is obscene.
drallison 16y ago
Seems to me that this decision just transfers $$$ into the hands of the TLD operator. Porn website operators will now want to buy example.xxx as well as example.com and example.net and so forth. Non-porn operators may want to buy anotherexample.xxx to protect their anotherexample.com name.
jawngee 16y ago
Where can I register at?
SoftwareMaven 16y ago
Regardless of the arguments for or against, this is what I thought was sad: That claim of independence gave ICANN board member Rita Rodin Johnston pause for thought. "I still question whether, in fact, there is a real sponsored community here," she said in the board-meeting debate before the vote. However, she went on to vote in favor of the new domain, saying that despite her personal reservations about the proposal, she felt obliged to by ICANN's decision-making process. "It really doesn't matter what I think. What's important is that ICANN has a process that it set up and the process came back and said that sponsorship criterion was met, and that this board has the courage to follow that criterion," she said. "It really doesn't matter what I think"?? If you are on the board of any organization, I would argue that it very much matters what you think, otherwise, what is the point?
Groxx 16y ago
Honestly, I see this as a good thing. "consumers" will see it as a shortcut to what they're looking for. Thus "hosts" will benefit by owning .xxx domains. Sites without .xxx won't succeed as well as those with. Scale up, and you've got a basic means of organizing sites that didn't exist before. It of course won't mean that black-listing .xxx domains will mean a porn-free surfing environment. Expecting that is like expecting Wikipedia to always be correct, and I highly doubt it'll even approach Wikipedia-consistency. But admitting porn is out there and providing a way to organize it and keep it a little more separate from non-porn simply cannot be a bad thing. edit: why does everyone seem to think sites won't own both a .com and a .xxx domain, for at least a respectable period of time? If intarwebIs4porn.com doesn't buy intarwebIs4porn.xxx they'll be slaughtered if a mass migration occurs, because the owner of the domain can camp it for as much as they want. They will buy them. They only stand to lose if they don't.

38 points by sound 16y ago

I can only imagine the kind of domain name land-grab this will invoke. Squatters will be prepping their naughty keywords database in preparation, I suspect.

Revisor 16y ago
I think we can assume premium domain names will be sold in a land rush auction, not registered on a first-come-first-serve basis. Similar to e.g. .ASIA or .AM. There may even be different registration fees like .TV has.
pjscott 16y ago
I think the cheapest way to get a desirable .xxx domain would be to register a nonsensical domain like "dumptrucking.xxx" and then make it a new term for some sex act. What is "dump trucking"? I don't know, and neither does anybody else -- yet. It's brand-building writ sleazy.

Kilimanjaro 16y ago

sex.xxx the most expensive domain evar

aniketh 16y ago
more likely free.xxx
- rikthevik 16y ago
  se.xxx?
  - gaius 16y ago
    Swedish is a guarantee of quality ;-)

dantheman 16y ago

Complete waste of time and a boondoggle.

po 16y ago

I wish the ICANN would knock it off. TLD's are not an effective way to group websites. They are making the namespace more complex for little or no benefit. Now that the horses are effectively out of the barn, they should just make the TLD registry replace the concept of a domain. Cannon already bought .cannon right?

adolph 16y ago

In other news, domain registrars issued updated guidance on improved earnings...

code_duck 16y ago
No doubt, this is a huge money giveaway to whomever will be selling these.

unexpected 16y ago

Can someone explain to me how this helps the Internet ecosystem? If I were a porn site, why would I want this address? Filters, parental controls, etc. are most likely going to block the entire .xxx domain - this would limit page views. History has shown that .com is the most popular TLD - how is .xxx going to help? It seems like an attempt to drum up registrar dollars.

yock 16y ago
True, it would limit page views, but don't forget that (for better or worse) there are laws about viewing pornography across most of the country and much of the world as well. At least some of that traffic is coming illegally, and it may be only a matter of time before porn peddlers are held legally liable for that traffic. I think it makes a lot of practical business sense to be able to unequivocably categorize your business.
- noctrine 16y ago
  I wonder if this would sponsor any relevant legislation. US based sites being forced to this TLD in order to place Liability for Minors on parents.
cookiecaper 16y ago
.xxx helps because it allows easier segmentation. xxx sites will be considered "good citizens" for moving over. Filters will block all of them, which is fine because people who'd be filtered significantly (kids) don't have money to spend on this stuff anyway. Others may be filtered only at work but frankly that's a job-saving idea so it keeps money coming in. If you want porn, you know just how to get it; go to any xxx domain out there. If you don't want it, you know how to avoid a larger part of it; don't go to any xxx domain out there. Sounds like it works well to me! No mandatory compliance would ever work, and there will always be porn littered all over these many internets, but .xxx domain will make at least part of it easier to access/avoid, according to the desires of the user and/or its guardians.
- user24 16y ago

jgrahamc 16y ago

It wouldn't surprise me if the pornography industry didn't completely ignore this TLD. The nature of pornography means that it's possible to be very creative in naming your site. If you look at Alexa's list of the top adult web sites you'd see the following names: livejasmin.com, pornhub.com, xvideos.com, youporn.com, xhamster.com, tube8.com, ... It doesn't look to me like the .com namespace is running out of room for pornography.

MichaelGG 16y ago
I would be surprised if every site doesn't immediately get their .xxx out of nervousness. How long until someone puts laws saying porn must be hosted on .xxx "for the children"? Sites using .com could be accused of trying to hide instead of clearly marking their dangerous content. Idiotic, yes. So how probable?
- sethg 16y ago
  Someone could avoid such a law simply by hosing their .xxx site in another country. And even if every national government agrees that segregating porn on the Net would be a good thing, you’ll never get them all to agree on a standard. In some countries topless women are no big deal, and in others an exposed elbow is obscene.

drallison 16y ago

Seems to me that this decision just transfers $$$ into the hands of the TLD operator. Porn website operators will now want to buy example.xxx as well as example.com and example.net and so forth. Non-porn operators may want to buy anotherexample.xxx to protect their anotherexample.com name.

jawngee 16y ago

Where can I register at?

SoftwareMaven 16y ago

Regardless of the arguments for or against, this is what I thought was sad: That claim of independence gave ICANN board member Rita Rodin Johnston pause for thought. "I still question whether, in fact, there is a real sponsored community here," she said in the board-meeting debate before the vote. However, she went on to vote in favor of the new domain, saying that despite her personal reservations about the proposal, she felt obliged to by ICANN's decision-making process. "It really doesn't matter what I think. What's important is that ICANN has a process that it set up and the process came back and said that sponsorship criterion was met, and that this board has the courage to follow that criterion," she said. "It really doesn't matter what I think"?? If you are on the board of any organization, I would argue that it very much matters what you think, otherwise, what is the point?

Groxx 16y ago

Honestly, I see this as a good thing. "consumers" will see it as a shortcut to what they're looking for. Thus "hosts" will benefit by owning .xxx domains. Sites without .xxx won't succeed as well as those with. Scale up, and you've got a basic means of organizing sites that didn't exist before. It of course won't mean that black-listing .xxx domains will mean a porn-free surfing environment. Expecting that is like expecting Wikipedia to always be correct, and I highly doubt it'll even approach Wikipedia-consistency. But admitting porn is out there and providing a way to organize it and keep it a little more separate from non-porn simply cannot be a bad thing. edit: why does everyone seem to think sites won't own both a .com and a .xxx domain, for at least a respectable period of time? If intarwebIs4porn.com doesn't buy intarwebIs4porn.xxx they'll be slaughtered if a mass migration occurs, because the owner of the domain can camp it for as much as they want. They will buy them. They only stand to lose if they don't.