YNOT – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers on Friday green-lighted dot-xxx, three years after calling the controversial porn-specific Top-Level Domain dead and 10 years after beginning consideration.Twelve of the 14 members of ICANN’s board of directors voted to follow the recommendation rendered in January by an international arbitration tribunal, which said the internet oversight agency erred in 2007 when it rejected ICM Registry’s dot-xxx application after granting provisional approval in 2005. From here, ICANN will expedite “due diligence” reviews of ICM’s financial and technical underpinnings and then fine-tune the registry operation contract that was under negotiation when ICANN reversed its decision.

The board also mentioned returning the issue to ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee during the group’s scheduled December meeting in Colombia. In March 2007, shortly before ICANN rejected dot-xxx, the GAC voiced concern about whether ICM’s application met the sponsorship criteria required for approval of sponsored Top-Level Domains, of which dot-xxx appears poised to be the last due to a recent restructuring of the TLD creation process.

In a previous communiqué, dated March 2006, the GAC mentioned dissatisfaction with the registry agreement because the document omitted several “public-interest benefits” promised in ICM’s dot-xxx application. Those issues have been or shortly will be resolved, ICM co-founder and President Stuart Lawley said Friday.

“We will make sure the [final] contract completely satisfies the GAC advice,” Lawley said, adding he does not expect the ICANN board to consult the GAC again. “At no time was the GAC opposed to dot-xxx. Members merely wanted explanations [about the sponsorship criteria] and the addition of public-interest benefits to the contract. The GAC chair told us they don’t want this back in their plate.

“Our expectation is that this step will proceed smoothly and will not impede the roll-out of dot-xxx.”

Assuming the matter does not require further GAC review, Lawley said he expects ICANN and ICM to reach agreement about the contract by mid-August or early September. The board could grant verbal approval of the registry agreement during a late-October teleconference, with formal signing to occur shortly thereafter. Lawley said he does not expect the matter to linger until ICANN’s next public meeting, scheduled for early December in Colombia, because the ICANN board is not eager to face another round of contentious dot-xxx discussion.

The domain is expected to go live 120 days after the contract is signed, Lawley said.

Thereafter, he said he expects things to move along at a brisk pace. Overnight Thursday, after word of ICANN’s near-certain approval became public, ICM saw 1,981 new dot-xxx pre-registrations, bringing the total of pre-registered domains to 112,000, Lawley said. On roll-out, he expects 250,000 to 500,000 domains to be registered right away, with as many as one million registrations occurring within the first “couple of years” as people see the benefits of registration, he said.

In February, Lawley averred “The potential benefits [of belonging to the dot-xxx community] are even more attractive today than they were in 2006. For those willing to step forward and self-identify and self-regulate, collective bargaining [with financial institutions and search engines, for example] will be quite powerful.”

Potential benefits notwithstanding, a significant segment of the adult entertainment industry, through its trade association Free Speech Coalition, vehemently opposes the creation of dot-xxx. According to FSC Executive Director Diane Duke, the domain offers untold opportunities for governments and the web at large to “ghetto-ize” legal pornography. Duke and the GAC repeatedly have reminded ICANN that the creation of dot-xxx could put the organization in jeopardy of violating its charter by setting up ICANN as an arbiter of content on the web. In addition, Duke remains adamant about the industry’s lack of support for an sTLD of which it is the titular “sponsor.”

It’s that last factor that particularly aggravates porn-site operators and the FSC, who see ICM’s move as an unabashedly mercenary attempt to extort large sums of money from a group in which ICM has no other stake.

Lawley has admitted ICM is a “completely independent entity with no affiliation, current or historic, with the adult entertainment industry,” but he said that gives the company an unbiased perspective about how to help members of the dot-xxx community conduct their businesses in ways that not only benefit them, but also allay the fears put forward by governments, religious groups and child-advocacy organizations.

The claim of independence gave at least one ICANN board member pause during the pre-voting debate.

“I still question whether, in fact, there is a real sponsored community here,” Rita Rodin Johnston said during the discussion.

However, she also noted a procedural obligation to vote for approval.

“It really doesn’t matter what I think,” she told other board members. “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.”

Earlier, board member Harald Alvestrand noted he felt “force[d]…to say that it is in the best interest of [ICANN] and the interest of the furtherance of the organization’s goals to act as if something is true that I believe is not, in fact, so. This is a very uncomfortable situation, but I can see no better way to move forward.”

ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush thanked Alvestrand “for a very concise explanation of the position that I think many board members find themselves in.”

Duke, who attended the meeting and spoke against dot-xxx on behalf of the FSC, said she believes the ICANN board acted more out of concern about litigation previously hinted at by ICM than out of commitment to the equity or legitimacy of the organization’s own processes.

“It is clear that we made an impact,” Duke said. “ICANN board members were extremely uncomfortable knowing that no support exists for a dot-xxx sTLD in the sponsoring community.”

FSC board member Tom Hymes, who also addressed ICANN during the dot-xxx debate in Brussels, added, “My feeling is that the board is painfully aware of ICM’s threat to sue ICANN, and was forced to pass a resolution that many of the board members feel is at odds with the truth. This is not speculation. At the meeting today, several said as much, and I can only add that I was deeply moved by their courage to do so under the circumstances. I do not fault them for acting to protect their organization, and I believe there are a plenitude of serious obstacles to the ultimate realization of this profoundly flawed application.”

In the final analysis, Duke, indicated, nothing about dot-xxx is set in stone yet.

“We heard in the board meeting, and you can read in the transcripts, that board members are concerned about what is good for the ‘organization,’” she said. “Avoiding an expensive lawsuit and saving face in the [independent review panel] process is good for ICANN, but as ICANN’s CEO pointed out, it may not be in the best interest of the ‘global public interest.’ In the end, I believe that ICANN will do the right thing.”

Lawley remains resolutely positive dot-xxx will be live by early 2011.

“It’s been a long time coming, but I’m excited about the fact that dot-xxx will soon become a reality,” he said. “This is great news.”