The six-year effort to create a specific Web address for online adult entertainment has come to a close with the ICANN Board’s approval of the .xxx top-level domain.
According to the announcement from sponsoring registrar ICM Registry (
www.icmregistry.com), this decision comes on the heels of an independent review that declared that ICANN’s previous decision to deny .xxx was wrong.
“It’s been a long time coming, but I’m excited about the fact that .xxx will soon become a reality,” ICM Registry chairman Stuart Lawley said in a statement. “This is great news." ICM Registry will now work with ICANN staff to complete the due diligence on its technical and financial qualifications and to finalize the contract to run .xxx.
In documents submitted to ICANN reported in a CNet news story, the ICM Registry proposed .xxx registry would charge $60 per domain name and let resellers add a markup in the ball park of $10 to $15 per domain. Secondly, the International Foundation For Online Responsibility (
www.onlineresponsibility.org), a nonprofit organization, would be in charge of the rules for .xxx to make sure that issues surrounding child pornography, freedom of expression and the interests of the adult entertainment industry all weight in on the domain.
The ICM Registry expects .xxx domains to go live at the start of 2011, if not sooner. There are already 110,000 pre-reservations, which is expected to increase now that ICANN has formally approved the TLD.
According to the ICM Registry, the .xxx domain will provide a place online for adult entertainment providers and their service providers who want to be part of a voluntary, self-regulatory community. It will provide effective labeling of content, so that individuals and search engines know that .xxx websites likely contain adult content, which will allow for simple and effective filtering for those who wish to do so.
This will also provide an opportunity for domain registrars to sell millions of new domains, as well as effectively forcing them to buy a .xxx version of their current .com domain to maintain their brand.
