In a letter to the editor of The Independent Florida Alligator, Mike
South, who describes himself as "a gun-totin' libertarian pornographer"
accuses ICM Registry of bribing "key adult-industry members and
organizations for support."
South says there is no support whatsoever for a .XXX gTLD within the
adult industry and questions ICM's motives, apart from wanting to make
money. South goes on to say ICM Registry "has no background and no
affiliation with the very industry that this TLD would affect."
The letter goes on to say a .XXX gTLD would do nothing to control porn
on the internet and says a .KIDS gTLD would be much more useful in
providing a safe browsing area online for children.
On the allegation of bribing, South says that ICM Registry offered the
adult industry "trade association $8 per domain sold in exchange for
[their] support. When it was clear that we were going to turn them down,
ICM Registry had enough people join the trade association to sway the
vote in ICM Registry's favor."
South hopes the "bad idea" of .XXX can shut "down once and for all."
The application for the .XXX gTLD by ICM Registry has been controversial
with ICANN turning down the application, allegedly with American
government interference. In February 2010 an independent review of the
application for .XXX by the ICANN Independent Review Process voted two
to one to advise the ICANN Board to reconsider the .XXX gTLD at its next
meeting.
The review panel found that ICANN's handling of ICM Registry's
application to run the .XXX top level domain violated ICANN's Bylaws and
Articles of Incorporation, as well as international and California law.
It should be noted that the holdings of the Independent Review Panel
are advisory in nature and that they do not constitute a binding
arbitral award.
The .XXX proposal was considered by the ICANN board at their meeting in
Nairobi in March. The board directed ICANN's CEO and general counsel to
finalise a report of possible process options for further consideration.
To read this letter by Mike South in full, see:
www.alligator.org/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/article_2ac016ce-67ab-11df-82c4-001cc4c002e0.html
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