ICANN does the right thing on .xxx – but will the GAC?

Posted on by Free Expression Online, Internet Identifiers

It still isn't over.

At its public forum Thursday, the ICANN Board indicated its willingness to accept and act in accordance with the findings of an Independent Review Panel that ruled it had treated the .xxx top level domain application unfairly.

In a presentation from its General Counsel, ICANN bowed to justice and issued two important declarations.

1. The Board explicitly recognized that its June 1, 2005 vote on the .xxx top level domain had determined that ICM Registry met the required sponsorshp criteria.

2. The Board explicitly recognized that its reversal of that decision was not consistent with a neutral, objective and fair application of documented policy.

The Board's acceptance of these findings of the Independent Review Panel is a huge relief to anyone concerned about accountability. The decision was praised by many different people in the public forum. Only the online adult service industry – which opposes the domain and is not concerned with the accountability issue – spoke against the decision. The action shows that the Board is respecting its stated process. We have no special inside information but from context and conversations we believe that Board Chair Peter Dengate Thrush should take a lot of the credit for leading the Board and the staff to this good resolution.

What happens now? Unfortunately the picture becomes a lot cloudier. First, the staff will conduct due diligence to ensure that the application is still current, and that no material changes have taken place in ICM Registry that would alter the nature of the application. If so, ICM and ICANN will proceed to contract negotiations. Upon finalizing the draft contract, the Board will then determine whether is it consistent with the GAC's advice. If it is not, the Board will enter into GAC consultation following the relevant provisions of the ICANN bylaws. Based on this GAC consultation, bd will decide whether to approve the final application.

Unfortunately, the discussions in Brussels did not specify exactly which GAC advice they were talking about. GAC advice on the complex of content-regulation issues associated with top level domains and “morality and public order” has been notably inconsistent. In many ways, the GAC itself is more responsible for the injustice and chaos imposed upon the .xxx application than anyone else. The posturing of GAC members around the .xxx issue, especially the stunning turnaround of the US Government in August 2005, raises doubts about whether consistency with GAC advice is a good standard to use as a gateway for resolution of this problem. GAC's insistence on some kind of morality and public order exception for new TLDs – and its recent 180 degree turnaround on the workability of those exceptions – is an example of how the GAC acts. Moreover, a devious Board could use GAC as an excuse to refuse to approve the application, although board chair Thrush openly noted that it is possible for the Board to go against GAC advice, however.

A sound recording of the public forum is available here.

36 thoughts on “ICANN does the right thing on .xxx – but will the GAC?”

  1. .XXX will Never Make it Thru The .PROCESS
    and the market will change as that process is extended
    Fools and their money
    Carrot+string and PDT pulls it along the path…
    How deep does that rabbit hole go ?
    Take the Red Pill or the Blue Pill

  4. The ITU and IEEE are going to remove the IP (political) Layer
    The IEEE claims trademarks on the names “EUI-48” and “EUI-64”, where “EUI” stands for Extended Unique Identifier.

  5. While ICANN was distracted in .EU secret meetings
    in Washington with the House and Senate have
    started building a new core network.
    Attendees:
    AT&T, Tim McKone
    Amazon, Emmett O'Keefe
    CDT, David Sohn
    Cisco, Jeff Campbell
    CompTel, Jerry James
    Consumers Union (CU), Joel Kelsey
    CTIA, Jot Carpenter
    CWA, Debbie Goldman
    Dish, David Goodfriend
    Free Press, Derek Turner
    Free State Foundation, Randolph May
    Google, Johanna Shelton
    ITI, Dean Garfield
    ITIF, Rob Atkinson
    Level 3, John Ryan
    MAP, Andy Schwartzman
    Microsoft, Paula Boyd
    NARUC, Brian O'Hara
    NASUCA, Brenda Pennington
    NCTA, James Assey
    NTCA, Tom Wacker
    OIC, Markham Erickson
    PFF, Dan Horowitz
    Phoenix Center, Larry Spiwak
    Public Knowledge, Ernesto Falcon
    Qwest, Melissa Newman
    RCA, Tim Donovan
    Sprint, Bill Barloon
    TIA, Grant Seiffert
    US Telecom, Walter McCormick
    Verizon, Peter Davidson

  8. ICANN Plans Retreat at the Playboy Mansion
    That is also a popular venue for Domainers
    Photos of Harold, George, and Ray lounging around the pool with the other A-List guests will be special.

  10. .XX uses TWO VLAN tags and .XXX uses THREE VLAN tags
    .XXX has 66 bit addressing which does not fit in 64
    that prevents .KIDS from using the .XXX transport
    It is like having a highway for 18 and older and
    16 year olds can not get on the road
    The IP layer is removed so there is no debate on IPv4 or IPv6. The ITU and IEEE have it worked out.

  14. .XXX set to Roll Out at CES Las Vegas 2011
    The Hot Rod is expected to flip the switch
    at the AVN Expo Gala with dancing

  17. Only ICANN-Approved (certified) Set-Top-Box devices will be allowed for .XXX
    A CERT Lab will need to be constructed, like CableLabs in Boulder.CO

  19. HTTPS – Sponsored
    HTTP – not Sponsored
    Note the S for Sponsored TLD

  20. Mr. .XXX Stuart Lawley wrote
    Back on Terra Firma in the US.
    Some observations:
    1) there is no requirement to post adult entertainment on the .xxx websites, that is the registrants choice, however,
    2) in order to be able to register resolving names, the registrant has to be a member of our sponsored community. Please see the draft contract for full definition
    3) non members of sponsored community can apply during the start up period to effectively remove their trademarks for ever being registered for a reasonable one time fee. We believe this launch will be the most friendly to the large non adult industry IP holders. Pay a reasonable fee once and forget about it thereafter.
    4) pre-reservations have gone crazy since the announcement with over 23,500 received on Friday alone, now standing at circa 135,000
    5) when the community see our full range of plans for .xxx including proprietary payments systems and age verification methods with ICM as the ‘trusted clearing house” we genuinely believe that, over time, .xxx will become the PREFERRED TLD of choice for the adult industry.
    Many thanks for all of your comments

  21. .XXX Working Great
    Over 20,000 pre-Registrations a day
    .US Trademarks will also be registered
    [root@localhost bin]# dig @ns12.new.net xxx ns
    ; <<>> DiG 9.3.6-P1-RedHat-9.3.6-4.P1.el5 <<>> @ns12.new.net xxx ns
    ; (1 server found)
    ;; global options: printcmd
    ;; Got answer:
    ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 3318 ;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;xxx. IN NS ;; ANSWER SECTION: xxx. 3600 IN NS tld2.newdotnet.net. xxx. 3600 IN NS tld1.newdotnet.net. ;; Query time: 76 msec ;; SERVER: 208.87.148.192#53(208.87.148.192) ;; WHEN: Sun Jun 27 09:15:29 2010 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 72

  22. ICANN's ARIN can not handle the .XXX Load
    From: Member Services
    Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2010 07:11:54 -0400
    To: “arin-announce at arin.net”
    Subject: [arin-announce] Whois-RWS Release Update
    On 26 June, ARIN rolled out Whois-RWS. Unfortunately, we experienced a
    very significant increase in traffic after rollout which exceeded our
    load capacity and caused the new service to degrade to an unacceptable
    level. To ensure customers could continue to access ARIN's Whois data,
    we have reverted to the old service which degrades more gracefully under
    load. We are examining the data gathered on the traffic patterns we
    experienced and are making the necessary changes to deploy Whois-RWS the
    near future. We thank you for your patience, and we look forward to
    making the Whois-RWS service available for community use very soon.
    Regards,
    Mark Kosters
    Chief Technical Officer
    American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)

  24. When will the LIST of PRE-Registered .XXX names be
    released by ICANN, in an Open and Transparent Process?

  25. including proprietary payments systems and age verification
    .XXX .VISA Cards ?

  26. ICANN expert Milton Mueller drew a critical conclusion from the meeting, summarising: “Now the national monopoly country code registries get to enter the IDN space before anyone else because ICANN wants their political support. In the meantime, hundreds if not thousands of legitimate potential innovators are deferred endlessly, their investors’ money burned, their ideas and dreams stranded.”
    http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/11/01/icann-gives-green-light-to-%e4%b8%ad%e5%9b%bd-%d1%80%d1%84-%d8%a5%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%aa-but-no-timeline-for-new-top-level-domains/
    Now that .XXX is progressing, why are others delayed?
    When people stand in line they have one view.
    Once in the game, they then seem to want others locked out.
    .JOBS ?

  27. ICANN plans to talk .XXX in circles for years and blame it on GAC and others
    ICM Registry is HALF WAY there
    Next year they will also be HALF WAY there

  28. Adult bookstores now have the new .XXX WIFI Routers with the sticker: “ICANN Approved”
    OpenDNS is used for the non-XXX names
    The XXX Community has .XXX running
    Some ISPs are happy their customers can not get .XXX

  29. Religious Right Strategy
    Put stickers on WIFI Routers in Big Box Retailers
    [ Supports .XXX – ICANN Approved ]
    Contact local church leaders and tell them said Big
    Box Retailer is carrying the .XXX Routers
    [church leaders take a peak and ask store Manager]
    Big Box Retailer contacts ICANN to find out what this
    is all about. The Hot Rod takes those calls.

  31. .XXX Servers Up With NEW Set-Top-Boxes
    Insiders are building their Brands
    Hefner is trying to buy Playboy.XXX back

  32. ICANN Chairman confirms that the new Accountability and Review process will be applied to .XXX
    Any “i” not dotted or “t” not crossed will delay .XXX for more Review
    [Insert] Catch 22 Movie [/Insert]
    ICM is screwed – Thanks for playing

  33. ICANN goes into Sales and Marketing Mode for their MLM between meetings
    http://blog.icann.org/
    August 2010 – Asia Pacific Registrar Recruiting
    But, in court documents, ICANN claims “they do not sell anything”.
    Human Greed has no limits.

  35. “ICANN did not solicit…”
    “indeed, it does not solicit any persons or entities…”

  36. WOW, it's a miacle, .CASH just pours from the heavens on the ICANN Cult

Comments are closed.

Will The Internet Fragment?

“In characteristically rigorous fashion, Mueller’s outstanding book punctures the alarmist myth of Internet fragmentation and helps us to understand what is really at stake as nations and other groups vie for power over the Internet.”

Jack Goldsmith, Harvard Law School

Purchase Online