EU Tried To Get US To Force ICANN To Delay .xxx Domain

from the can-this-please-just-end... dept

The years long (and, at times, totally contradictory) fight over .xxx shows no signs of letting up, even though ICANN has approved the TLD, despite protests from various countries. Apparently European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, specifically stepped in and asked the US government to delay the implementation of .xxx so that the EU could prepare a way to try to stop the TLD. Thankfully, the White House told Kroes that, even if it doesn’t agree with the decision to move forward on .xxx, ICANN is supposed to be independent and stepping in and going against the organization could do more harm than good.

Of course, part of what’s amusing is that part of Kroes’ reasoning for asking the US to step in is that so many others have been trying to get the management of the domain system moved out of ICANN and into a UN body, in part because they don’t trust ICANN being under the control of the US government. She argues that ICANN’s decision to go through with .xxx only gives more fodder to those who wish to get rid of ICANN. Of course, couldn’t the same be true if the US stepped in and asserted its power to block ICANN? If anything, it seems like that would lead others to scream even louder about how ICANN is a sham and it’s all really run by the US government.

Filed Under: , , ,
Companies: icann

Rate this comment as insightful
Rate this comment as funny
You have rated this comment as insightful
You have rated this comment as funny
Flag this comment as abusive/trolling/spam
You have flagged this comment
The first word has already been claimed
The last word has already been claimed
Insightful Lightbulb icon Funny Laughing icon Abusive/trolling/spam Flag icon Insightful badge Lightbulb icon Funny badge Laughing icon Comments icon

Comments on “EU Tried To Get US To Force ICANN To Delay .xxx Domain”

Subscribe: RSS Leave a comment
22 Comments
Chronno S. Trigger (profile) says:

I still want a .xxx domain name

Non profit organizations have .org, but they can still use a .com. I don’t really see a problem with the adult industry having .xxx, but can still use .com or whatever. AS LONG AS THAT’S WHERE THEY LEAVE IT.

Granted, it is just a giant money grab by ICANN. I can only see two uses for Walmart.xxx, and since ICANN requires the preorder to be by those who own the name already, guess who’s getting it.

Trails (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:

Look, just cause TLA acronyms are confusing FTP people, doesn’t mean their pieces of POS.

FYI information, I’m surprised this is coming from the EU union. Europe has a reputation for liberalness. Claims like porn promotes the spread of STD diseases(did they make this claim? I didn’t RTFA article) is what you’d expect from the GOP party, not the EC commissioner.

Anyways, it’s nice to see the US states govt pushing back, instead of trying to manipulate ICANN corporation, for once, for ffs.

Trails (profile) says:

Re: Problem?

Agreed. Some claim the point of .xxx is to segregate porn or make it easier to filter. That’s absurd on its face (all over its face, har har).

The point of .xxx is really to establish a TLD that there’s a market for. The fact that anyone offended by porn can fairly easily block the entire TLD undermines any “think of the children” type arguments, but while porn on .xxx is easy to segregate and block, online porn will never be easy to block. camgirls.com will not suddenly become a site about women in photography.

.xxx will not lead to more porn, greater porn availability for minors, it will simply offer more domain names for sale to porn providers. It will have 0 effect on supply, demand or availability of porn.

Anonymous Coward says:

Couldn't resist....

If anything, it seems like that would lead others to scream even louder about how ICANN is a sham and it’s all really run by the US government.

ICANN IS A SHAM AND IT’S ALL REALLY RUN BY THE US GOVERNMENT!!

Or perhaps more likely just as greedy and inevitably self-centered as most major corporations coupled with a total spinelessness (again much like most major corporations) when it comes to caving in to the US government demanding something of dubious legality.

Chris says:

irony

So the EU is wants to get rid of ICANN because they’re worried the US government is in too much control of it… so because they believe their own fears, they believe they can ask the US government to exert control over ICANN, who responds with “We don’t control ICANN, so we can’t act on your desire to control ICANN”

It’s not even noon and you’ve managed to give me a headache already, thanks.

Tanfur (profile) says:

End of Story?

An old, old convention in short story formatting, is to have at the end, not “END” but “XXX”, or “=XXX=”, to indicate there are no more pages, but not be part of the text. It even morphed into “=30=” for some writers. I was in a writing group where one writer used that convention.

So having .XXX TLD available should really be the End of the Story!

Add Your Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here

Comment Options:

Make this the or (get credits or sign in to see balance) what's this?

What's this?

Techdirt community members with Techdirt Credits can spotlight a comment as either the "First Word" or "Last Word" on a particular comment thread. Credits can be purchased at the Techdirt Insider Shop »

Follow Techdirt

Techdirt Daily Newsletter

Ctrl-Alt-Speech

A weekly news podcast from
Mike Masnick & Ben Whitelaw

Subscribe now to Ctrl-Alt-Speech »
Techdirt Deals
Techdirt Insider Discord
The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...
Loading...