The Road to Cartagena

FSC Executive Director Diane Duke and FSC Board Chair Jeffrey Douglas will travel to Cartagena, Columbia next week for the ICANN Board of Directors meeting. One of the topics to be discussed at the meeting is the .XXX "sponsored" Top Level Domain, proposed by Internet registry ICM.

FSC opposes the .XXX sTLD - the majority of adult Internet business owners and webmasters do not support being categorized in an Internet ghetto that will cost them millions in extra fees annually and also make it easier for anti-adult entities to censor and block their sites.

It's been a long fight. There have been several attempts by ICM to get the domain approved. ICM President Stuart Lawley previously had said that pre-registration for .XXX addresses would NOT be proof of support for the domain; in this latest attempt, he has gone back on this statement. FSC believes that most Internet business owners that have signed up for pre-registration are doing so as a defensive measure, so that domain resellers and cyber-squatters don't infringe on similar .com address where their businesses reside.

Webmasters - you worked hard to build your business; do you really want an address in the .XXX ghetto?

"ICM continues to act as if  it already has a contract with ICANN for .XXX." Duke said.  "The issues are far from resolved and this battle is far from over. Rest assured that FSC will be there every step of the way to represent the best interests of the adult online community."