
Who's Opposed To .XXX Domain Names? Not Exactly Who You'd Think - FluidDjango
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2011/12/14/143712869/whos-opposed-to-xxx-domain-names-not-exactly-who-youd-think
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parfe
It's exactly who I think.

People who want to censor content they disagree with don't think optional .xxx
goes far enough.

People who worry their content will be censored don't want a "voluntary"
ghetto built they can be forced into.

Approval of .xxx only makes ICM Registry happy as they charge registration
fees in a wide open namespace.

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andrewvc
The real problem with xxx is that it solves nothing (i can still register a
.com), and is nothing but a money grab.

~~~
michaelcampbell
Why is that a problem?

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cwp
Because in this case, "money grab" actually means "extortion". The original
article mentions that NPR has registered npr.xxx, but they don't plan to do
anything with it. They registered it strictly to prevent someone from putting
up "adult content" that could be associated with them. NPR is not alone in
this. I'd be interesting to see what percentage of .xxx domains actually have
pornography on them.

Registrars always pushed their customers to buy multiple domains on different
TLDs to "control their brand," but ICM is taking that strategy to a whole new
level.

~~~
code_duck
Wouldn't it be possible to challenge someone else's use of your name in a .xxx
domain as a trademark issue?

~~~
sp332
Probably not. Trademarks are specific to a particular market or kind of
product. For example, Apple Computer didn't really conflict with the Apple
Records until Apple started selling music. So a porn company probably wouldn't
legally conflict with your trademark.

~~~
tptacek
What? There's a whole huge controversial process around trademark disputes for
TLDs, spanning all the TLDs, .XXX included. It was all Slashdot could talk
about for months and months, because it favors trademark holders.

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sigzero
It was a pure money grab. Whoever didn't see that coming had their head buried
in the sand.

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tomwalsham
The Adult companies are opposed (and boycotting) as they already have
established brands. The Xtian groups are opposed due to it validating
pornography (when they shouldn't be, easier filters). The mainstream companies
are opposed as the 'prevent registration for $100/yr is a bleedingly obvious
protection racket to avoid higher lawyers fees for disputes.

This decision was good for nobody except ICANN, its associates, and those
behind the registry.

Wait for gTLDs in April 2012 to completely distort people's concepts of the
www, make the lawyers happy, and yes, break some of my regexen ;)

~~~
ComputerGuru
I'm curious, is "Christain" really such a long word that you have to weirdly
abbreviate it as "Xtian?"

~~~
effigies
People abbreviate Christmas as Xmas. I feel that, for consistency, it should
be Xian, rather than Xtian, but Xtian seems to be the standard.

Incidentally, I enjoy that you used the slur "Christain." alt.atheism?

~~~
pjscott
When I see the string "Xian", I read it as a Chinese word, and it sounds
completely unlike "Christian". This is a problem.

~~~
effigies
Same, here. It's really just the consistency I like about it. Or we could
switch to Xtmas.

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RexRollman
One time, I half expected someone to try to introduce a law mandating that all
adult sites have to be on a .xxx domain, so that they could be easily
filtered. Of course, it would be stupid to try that, but that's never stopped
a politician.

