Internet Overseer Rejects '.XXX' Domain

Mar 30, 05:52 PM

Current Headlines: The organization that manages the assignment of Web site addresses Friday rejected a proposal to give adult Web sites their own .xxx top-level domain.

The 9-5 vote by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers came nearly seven years after the proposal was floated by ICM Registry LLC of Jupiter, Fla.

ICM President Stuart Lawley said his firm, which had written and revised its application twice before, would likely file a lawsuit against ICANN.

Approving the voluntary domain would have forced ICANN of Marina del Rey, Calif., to assume an ongoing management and oversight role regarding Internet content, which is inconsistent with its technical mandate, the organization's board minutes said.

Lawley had argued that such a job would have gone to the International Foundation for Online Responsibility, a Canadian non-profit, and not ICANN.

Before the vote, Lawley said creating the domain would permit responsible adult webmasters who wish to work together to implement industry best practices in a specific, easily identifiable virtual marketplace.

ICANN, formed in 1998, had its 28th public meeting in Lisbon, Portugal.