YNOT – Adult industry trade association Free Speech Coalition on Thursday submitted a letter to the Governmental Advisory Committee of the International Corporation for Domain Names and Numbers, outlining the FSC’s continuing concerns about the proposed dot-xxx sponsored Top Level Domain.

In late October, ICANN’s board of directors delayed voting on whether to approve dot-xxx in order to seek advice from the GAC, which members of which previously have voiced opposition to the domain space. The vote on dot-xxx now is expected to occur during the ICANN board’s next meeting in Cartagena, Colombia, in early December.

FSC hopes to sway the GAC’s 91 members to counsel against approving dot-xxx, which FSC says is not supported by the adult industry and would place undue economic and censorship onus on a commercial community already reeling under myriad other financial and legal burdens. In recent years, the adult industry has been plagued by declining profits due in part to rampant content piracy, spiraling fees and regulations from financial processors, and increasing federal legislation in the U.S. and other countries.

“In our letter, FSC emphasizes that ICM [Registry]’s proposed dot-xxx sTLD poses a threat not only for the adult entertainment community, but also to the stability and security of the internet as a whole,” FSC Executive Director Diane Duke said. “The GAC has an inherent understanding of the issues and hopefully will guide the ICANN board in the right direction.”

The letter is accompanied by other documentation and outlines specific points FSC believes would present significant obstacles to the approval of dot-xxx. Those points include:

• ICANN’s lack of authority to oversee content-based regulation, and its inability to approve any other entity to oversee content-based regulation in regards to establishing a domain category. ICANN’s bylaws prohibit the organization from engaging in content regulation.
• Lack of support for the proposed sTLD from the presumed “sponsoring community,” which is necessary for approval.
• Use of fees from dot-xxx domain registrations to fund a proposed regulatory board for the domain space, in violation of free speech and free-association rights as recognized in a number of countries.
• Inconsistencies in documentation provided by domain registrar-hopeful ICM and its president, Stuart Lawley, in their campaign for approval of dot-xxx.
• Lack of transparency by ICM during the approval process.

ICM Registry, based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., has pursued the approval of dot-xxx for at least seven years, at a reported cost to date of about $10 million. Lawley has said the GAC’s previous concerns about sponsorship were allayed by a change in the documentation supporting the dot-xxx application. According to the new Sponsoring Organization Agreement, dated July 26, 2010, the sponsoring group is not the adult entertainment industry at large, but the International Foundation for Online Responsibility, a not-for-profit organization in which membership automatically will vest in each dot-xxx domain registrant at the time of registration. The “sponsoring community” required for the sTLD, therefore, represents something of a paradox — since IFFOR will not exist until after approval of dot-xxx — but Lawley said the change obviated any potential ICANN concerns about the sponsorship criterion. Concerns remain within the adult industry, however.

“I haven’t seen any significant support for a dot-xxx domain name from within the adult industry,” said YNOT Group LLC President Connor Young, a former FSC board member who has debated Lawley about the issues during trade show panels. “It doesn’t make sense for ICANN to approve dot-xxx when the industry that would be expected to use it, the adult industry, doesn’t want it.

“No doubt ICM and possibly others stand to make a lot of money if they can get this TLD approved, but I’d hope that any games that may be played to try and get around a lack of industry support would be rejected by ICANN.”