ICANN (Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers) isn’t going to
make it easier for porn seekers to get their fix.
ICANN’s Board of Directors has voted 9 to 5 against a new .xxx Top Level
Domain (tld) for the Internet. Among those who voted against .xxx were ICANN
Chairman Vint Cerf and President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Paul
Twomey.
The decision to vote down .xxx domain comes after years of
controversy.
In September 2005, ICANN delayed an expected decision on .xxx after Michael
Gallagher, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information at the
U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC), sent an open letter to Cerf asking for a delay on .xxx.
Gallagher’s letter noted that the DoC
had received 6,000 letters and e-mails in opposition to the creation of the
.xxx domain.
It was in June 2005 that ICANN announced it had begun negotiating with the ICM Registry for the creation of the .xxx
sponsored top-level domain (sTLD).
The rejection of the .xxx domain by ICANN is actually the second time that
the Internet’s governing body has turned down a proposal to create a special
red-light district for Internet smut.
It was nearly six year ago in November
2000 that ICANN first rejectedICM’s proposal to create .xxx.