CYBERSPACE — According to a preliminary report on the special meeting of the ICANN Board of Directors held Monday, discussion of the proposed .xxx TLD registry agreement with ICM Registry took up the lion’s share of the board’s meeting, as the board took stock of support for the proposed sTLD, both from inside and outside of the adult industry.The ICANN report also suggests that the .xxx debate is far from over within the ICANN board and that at least one more period of public comment on the proposed TLD, and the ICM contract to operate the TLD, is forthcoming.

The preliminary report states that board member John Jeffrey introduced the topic at February 12th meeting and “asked the board to consider a decision-making process on the pending issues along the following three issue areas: 1) community review and public comment of the agreement and the sufficiency of the proposed agreement; 2) the status of advice from the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) and a clarification of the letter from the GAC Chair and Chair-Elect, and whether additional public policy advice had been received or was expected following the Wellington Communique; and 3) how ICM measures up against the RFP criteria.”

According to the preliminary report, Jeffrey also noted a summary of the most recent public comment period, comments posted between January 5th and February 5th of this year, and reported that “Staff received over 600 public comments and approximately 55,579 emails (from an email campaign on a website) during and since this period. Of the comments posted to the public forum, 488 (77-percent) were opposed and 107 (16-percent) expressed support, with the others not indicating a view. Of the emails, nearly all were written on the same form opposing the introduction of the sTLD.”

Jeffrey also “noted that it was important that the board in making any decision on this matter should take into account the extensive public comments on this issue and the board’s review of this information should be noted.”

According to the report, ICANN Chairman Vint Cerf “asked whether in the breakdown of comments, it was possible to determine what fraction of the adult online content community supported the creation of the domain.”

Jeffery responded that “the support of the adult online content community was an issue area that had been raised in various comments, but indicated that it would be difficult to measure the participation of the larger community in this manner, since only those that wished to participate in the forum would do so.”

ICANN senior vice president Kurt Pritz argued that “ICM had provided extensive evidence for a sponsorsed (sic) community and that documentation of this could be found in the application. Kurt also pointed out that, at the board’s request, additional information had been presented to them during ICANN’s Mar del Plata Meeting.”

Prior to .xxx discussion panel held at the Xbiz Hollywood gathering earlier this month, some in the adult industry had wondered aloud how the panel discussion would be perceived by ICANN; if the preliminary report of the board meeting is any indication, it would seem that while ICANN board members were aware of the panel discussion, they haven’t come to any sort of conclusion concerning its tenor or significance, as yet.

According to the ICANN report, Cerf noted at the February 12th meeting that “he had been notified by email that there was a meeting of the adult online community that had recently taken place to discuss the creation of the new .xxx domain, and that the meeting was attended by ICM. John Jeffrey noted that he was informed that the meeting had taken place approximately one week earlier, and that Stuart Lawley of ICM had participated in a panel discussion. John also indicated that he was informed that it was sparsely attended and that there was no transcript of the panel discussion at this point.”

Cerf then asked whether the sparse attendance at the panel “by inference that meant there was no groundswell of support for the creation of the domain at that meeting.” Jeffrey responded that “he did not believe that there was enough information about the conference to support that conclusion.”

Cerf advised that he had been offered a transcript of the panel discussion, but “it was not yet available.”

Board member Rita Rodin, who was not on the board during previous discussions concerning .xxx, said that in preparation for the meeting, she had reviewed materials prepared by staff and other information about the proposed TLD. Rodin said that based on this review, she had “some concerns about whether the proposal met the criteria set forth in the RFP.”

“For example, [Rodin] noted that it was not clear to her whether the sponsoring community seeking to run the domain genuinely could be said to represent the adult on-line community,” the ICANN preliminary report states.

Cerf noted that issue had been the subject of debate by the board in previous discussions, and that “representatives of ICM had given a one-hour presentation at ICANN’s Mar del Plata meeting in April 2005 where they demonstrated what they believed was support from the adult online community.”

Cerf added, however, that it was “his belief that in recent times (over the last six months) there seemed to have been a more negative reaction from members of the adult online community to the proposal.”

Rodin concurred, saying that “a review of the materials indicates that there seems to be a ‘splintering” of support in the adult on-line community… this splintering suggested there may not be widespread support within the adult online community for the proposal.”

Rodin also expressed concern that approval of the TLD “in these circumstances would cause ICM to become a de facto arbiter of policies for pornography on the Internet…. that she was not comfortable with ICANN saying to a self-defined group that they could define policy around pornography on the Internet.”

Pritz noted that the last time ICANN had requested that ICM demonstrate support from the “adult online community,” ICM had provided ICANN with written support from “about 24 major suppliers of adult online content,” according to the report.

Pritz acknowledged, however, that “ICANN had not asked ICM specifically about their level of support since the Board’s decision on .XXX in June 2005.”

Board member Susan Crawford “expressed the view that no group can demonstrate in advance that they will meet the interests and concerns of all members in their community and that this was an unrealistic expectation to place on any applicant,” adding that if such a test was applied to any sponsor group for a new sTLD, “none would ever be approved.”

Vice chair for the board Roberto Gaetano countered that he believed that there is “significant opposition from the adult entertainment industry as they come to understand the repercussions and operation of this domain.”

Gaetano added that he thought a “substantial number in that community had changed their mind over the last six months” and that when the board has “evidence of substantial opposition that must be taken into account.”

Gaetano further noted that in discussion of .travel, “the Board had only one statement of opposition. In this case there had been hundreds.”

Rodin then “echoed what she saw as both Vint and Roberto’s views,” according to the report, observing that “the reason ICANN had public comment periods was to take into account the views expressed during them. If the Board does not pay attention to those views, she said, this would support the oft-mentioned argument that the Board does pay attention to the community.”

According to the preliminary report, acting chair Alejandro Pisanty said that he “sensed from listening to the discussion that a majority of Board members held ‘serious concerns’ about the level of support for the creation of the domain from the particular sponsoring community.”

Pisantry then conducted a “straw poll,” asking each board member and liason to express their view on the matter, and indicated that he was among those that held serious concerns.

According to the report, the board members and liasons who identified themselves as having “serious concerns” about sponsoring community support for .xxx included Vint Cerf, Steve Goldstein, Rita Rodin, Roberto Gaetano, Vanda Scartezini, Demi Getschko, Sharil Tarmizi, Raimundo Beca, Vittorio Bertola, and Suzanne Woolf.

“Susan Crawford, Joichi Ito, and Dave Wodelet stated that they did not have serious concerns about the sponsorship criteria, and expressed the view that it was an inappropriate burden to place on ICM to ensure that the entire adult online community was supportive of the proposed domain,” according to the report.

Paul Twomey, meanwhile, said that while he had “concerns,” he had “not reached a final conclusion as to their seriousness.”

Following the discussion of .xxx, Pisanty moved and Cerf seconded a request for a vote on a resolution that stated:

“Whereas, a majority of the board has serious concerns about whether the proposed .xxx domain has the support of a clearly-defined sponsored community as per the criteria for sponsored TLDs;

Whereas, a minority of the board believed that the self described community of sponsorship made known by the proponent of the .xxx domain, ICM Registry, was sufficient to meet the criteria for an sTLD.

Resolved (07.08) that: the revised version of Appendix S be exposed to a public comment period of no less than 21 days; and ICANN staff consult with ICM and provide further information to the Board prior to its next meeting, so as to inform a decision by the board about whether sponsorship criteria is met for the creation of a new .xxx sTLD.”

According to the preliminary report, “the Board approved the resolution unanimously, by voice vote.”

The full text of ICANN’s preliminary report on the February 12th meeting can be found here: http://www.icann.org/minutes/prelim-report-12feb07.htm

Approval of the formal minutes for the meeting by the ICANN Board is pending.