.porn

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Status:	ACTIVE
country:	International
Manager:	ICM Registry
Registry Provider:	Afilias
Type:	Community gTLD
Category:	Industry
Community:	Adult Entertainment Community
Priority #:	1427 - ICM Registry
Key People
Stuart Lawley, CEO

.porn is an active (gTLD) of ICM Registry in ICANN's new gTLD expansion program. The domain name string is dedicated for the use of the adult entertainment community. According to Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry, if the .porn gTLD will be approved all domain names registered under the .xxx gTLD will be grandfathered and the matching names will be automatically reserved under .porn gTLD without cost to the registrants. However, if registrants decide to activate and use the reserved .porn domain names, a nominal fee will be charged. ICM Registry manages the TLD and is its Registry. The proposed application succeeded and was delegated to the Root Zone on 06 December, 2014.

Launch

General availability for .adult began June 4, 2015. According Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry, over 4,000 domains under .adult and .porn were registered within the first hour of availability.

Controversy & Objections

Christian group Morality In Media launched a letter-writing campaign in July 2012 against ICM's three new TLD applications, .adult, .sex, and .porn. The group also protested against .xxx, ICM's original TLD. The group claims that its prediction about .xxx, that it would create more porn and not less, has been vindicated, as porn sites under the .com TLD have not moved to .xxx, and additional new sites have been created under the .xxx extension. With its campaign, MIM asked the U. S. Government and Congress and ICANN to take action against the spread of porn under the Internet by not allowing the three new TLDs into the root zone.

Saudi Arabia's Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) filed an objection against the TLD.

Independent Objector

The Independent Objector is responsible for determining if a new gTLD application is in the best interest of the Internet community. If not, he or she will file formal objections against a new gTLD application. Alain Pellet, a law professor from the University of Paris and a former member of the United Nations International Law Commission and International Court of Justice, was chosen by ICANN to serve as the sole independent objector for the New gTLD Program in May, 2012. The position was created by ICANN in accordance with the implementation of the New gTLD Program. As defined, the IO may be an individual or organization and must not be affiliated with any applicant and must carry out their responsibility without bias.

In December 2012 Mr. Pellet released his first correspondence on actual TLDs, commenting on so-called "Controversial strings". Those strings include: .adult, .sex, .porn, .sexy, .hot, .gay, .lgbt, .persiangulf, .vodka, and .wtf. A string seemed to have been deemed "controversial" by Mr. Pellet if it received a substantial amount of objections during the public comment period. He addresses each TLD separately and at length, noting the objection, and turning to International law and precedent to determine whether an objection from his point of view, of defending the public interest, is warranted. In each case he concludes that the objections are not supported by international law and that regional, cultural, and personal issues influence the objections rather than broadly accepted treaties, laws, or international cultural trends. He has reserved the right to later object to the strings, but at that time it was deemed that the "controversial strings" are in fact not offensive to the greater public interest and Internet users.

With regards to .porn, and the other sex related applications, the Independent Objector notes that most all objections raise concerns about greater space created for pornographic material, and cite moral, religious, or cultural issues with this fact. Mr. Pellet notes that there is no singular international consensus on the morality of pornographic material and it is one decided by local governments with regards to domestic perceptions and cultural and moral norms. He goes on to note that the creation of a .adult TLD could have the effect of clearly labeling pornographic material, thereby making it easier for offended people to avoid or block such content. He notes that the only widely accepted international norm and treaties on the matter that overlap specifically address the harm or exploitation of children, including with regards to sexual or pornographic scenarios. However, he notes that there is no reason to believe that the creation of a .adult TLD will make it easier to disseminate material that offends in this regard, and it could even prove to more closely regulate pornography and potentially offensive material.

Application Details

The following is excerpted from the applicant's response to question #18:

"Applicant’s parent company, ICM Registry LLC (“ICM”), brought into existence the Internet’s only existing adult-targeted top level domain (“.XXX”). .XXX is a sponsored top level domain (“sTLD”), whose sponsoring organization is the International Foundation for Online Responsibility (“IFFOR”). ICM was entrusted to certify that each of its registrants adopt responsible business practices designed to combat child abuse images, facilitate user choice and parental control regarding access to online adult entertainment, as well as protect privacy, security and consumer rights.

Applicant, a wholly owned subsidiary of ICM, will leverage ICM’s experience and consumer trust by providing the proposed gTLD at a more competitively priced offering. Applicant will utilize the best practices, expertise, relationships, resources, and goodwill the parent company has generated throughout the decade it has been focusing on the sensitivities, opportunities, and responsibilities inherent in operating an adult-targeted TLD. In doing so, Applicant strives to empower entities around the globe, spur innovation, facilitate trade and commerce, and enable the free and unfettered flow of information while ensuring the protection of minors, respecting the free speech rights of the adult industry, increasing brand protection for non-adult brands and facilitating user choice for Internet users who are not interested in accessing adult content on the new gTLD.

In light of .XXX’s unparalleled exposure through its multi million dollar marketing campaigns and significant first mover advantage as the adult domain extension of choice for the global adult entertainment industry (“AEI”), Applicant believes that the .XXX TLD is and will likely continue to be universally recognized as the pre-eminent TLD for the AEI. Applicant believes that .XXX will maintain its status as the first choice adult-targeted TLD because the protections offered on each .XXX website, such as daily malware scanning and automated family safety tagging, as well as the other benefits that accrue to .XXX registrants and consumers as a result of IFFOR’s polices, are impossible to replicate in a lower cost TLD.

That said, throughout ICM’s successful pursuit and launch of .XXX, Applicant learned that there are members of the AEI who chose not to, or were unable to, participate in .XXX, whether on the basis of price, inability to satisfy the sTLD membership criteria, or a general unwillingness to adopt or implement the policies promulgated by IFFOR. ICM learned that these constituencies within the AEI maintain a philosophical skepticism about, or an outright rejection of, granting a third party organization, i.e. IFFOR, the authority to create TLD policies that they perceive as potentially interfering with their own business policies and practices.

Applicant notes that while some constituents within the AEI have expressed the above -mentioned concerns regarding IFFOR’s policy making authority with respect to .XXX, Applicant itself believes that the multi-stakeholder approach embodied in the IFFOR policy making process, which includes a formal and transparent Policy Development Process (“PDP”) resulting from community-based participation, is ultimately a safer and more trustworthy process for policy making than the proposed lack of process available to all registry operators under the new gTLD Registry Services Agreement. Under the new gTLD Registry Services Agreement, registry operators are authorized to establish policies and TLD registration criteria without any of the oversight required under the Sponsoring Organization model. Applicant believes there is a potential risk under the new gTLD Registry Services Agreement that registry operators, especially unscrupulous registry operators who are not held accountable to a PDP-like process, may have more flexibility and less restraint required when making and imposing policies that impact their TLDs. These potentially unscrupulous registry operators, with unfettered limitations, may elect to impose new policies over their registrants that impact not only registrants, but also end-users and Internet stakeholders-at-large, without the benefit of the commentary, representation, or transparency that inherently exists in a sponsored TLD model, like .XXX. Applicant is, however, not currently aware of any existing AEI commentary regarding registry operators unrestricted policy making freedom available under the new gTLD program (as contrasted with the concerns Applicant is aware of by some constituents regarding the IFFOR policy making process).

In light of these concerns, certain AEI constituents have elected not to register .XXX names and thus Applicant believes that this new, competitively priced gTLD will provide these AEI constituents an opportunity to obtain adult-related TLD names without the IFFOR-related opportunities for policy making authority that they have expressed concerns regarding. Essentially, Applicant has listened to the concerns expressed to ICM by these constituencies and wishes to offer a new, alternative, adult targeted TLD that operates at a lower price point and does not have the same qualifying and operational requirements as those that exist in a sTLD like .XXX. Applicant’s mission and purpose is to expand the pool of adult-targeted TLDs and to provide the AEI an adult-targeted gTLD that clearly identifies their products and services to end-users, without certain perceived barriers to entry expressed by certain constituents within the global adult entertainment industry.

..

Grandfathering .XXX Names for Consumer Protection

Applicant is cognizant of the fact that existing .XXX reservants and registrants from within and outside the AEI do not want to incur additional expenses to protect their brands in a new adult targeted gTLD. In light of that consumer concern, Applicant intends to automatically “grandfather” all existing .XXX names into the applied for gTLD at NO cost. To better understand the impact of Applicant’s grandfathering plan it is important to understand ICM’s domain name reservation and registration programs, as those are the names that will become automatically grandfathered into Applicant’s applied for TLD. Prior to the launch of .XXX, ICM pro-actively selected .XXX domain names for reservation, at no cost to the interested or requesting parties. Prior to general registration, .XXX also offered a one-time Sunrise reservation program that provided reservation and brand protection to trademark owners for a one-time cost (known as “Sunrise B”). ICM’s pro-active consumer protection reservation programs ensured that .XXX domain names corresponding to specific names or brands would be reserved from third party registration; ICM provided these consumer protection reservation programs for a variety of groups including without limitation, Culturally Sensitive Names submitted by GAC, names submitted by global child protection services, etc. All of the names designated by ICM for its pro-active consumer protection reservation programs (including its Sunrise B program) will remain registry-reserved names by ICM throughout the duration of its Registry Services Agreement with ICANN.

All of the .XXX domain names that were designated as registry-reserved names (both the domain names in ICM’s Sunrise B program as well as the domain names designated as reserved by ICM as a part of its other pro-active consumer protection programs) will be automatically placed on Applicant’s registry-reserved list and will remain on Applicant’s registry-reserved list throughout the duration of Applicant’s Registry Services Agreement with ICANN. This will be done by Applicant at no additional cost to those reservants and entities. No further action need be taken by any party to ensure this. This unprecedented consumer protection is a part of Applicant’s unique ability to address the sensitivities inherent in operating an adult related TLD.

With regard to the .XXX names registered as a part of ICM’s pre-launch registration programs and general availability registration, these registered names will also automatically become registry-reserved in the new gTLD at NO cost to the registrant. Only those registrants who wish to enjoy new traffic opportunities available in the new gTLD or develop new online properties they feel are more relevant and appropriate to the new gTLD string may elect to actually register their “grandfathered” matching name with Applicant in the new gTLD. In such event, the new gTLD registrations will be offered at a price substantially lower than the current .XXX registration price. Registrants will have the complete discretion and flexibility on whether or not, and when, to register their corresponding .XXX grandfathered name in the new gTLD. This option will be available to them throughout the duration of their underlying .XXX registration and Applicant’s Registry Services Agreement with ICANN; there is no other deadline associated with this option.

For all .XXX registered names that are grandfathered into the new gTLD where the registrant does NOT wish to register those .XXX corresponding names in the new gTLD, Applicant will securely reserve all of those names on its registry-reserved list, at NO cost. No third parties will be able to register those new gTLD registry-reserved names throughout the duration of the underlying .XXX registration and Applicant’s Registry Services Agreement with ICANN."