Truer words were never spoken, and yet he proposed a .XXX sTLD which HIS company, ICM, would own. This .XXX sTLD [sponsored top-level domain] would be regulated by IFFOR, an entity put together by Lawley and ICM (again not of the industry). What Lawley did not mention is that .XXX would in effect ghettoize the industry, making it a target for Focus on the Family-type zealots and government intervention. And as he spoke, legislation had been proposed in congress to mandate .XXX.
Lawley stated that he was going to donate $10 per registration to child protection organizations and fight any legislation that would mandate .XXX. I found both comments laughable as Lawley has no visible history of supporting anything in relation to child protection, unlike the audience he was preaching to who regularly supported ASACP. And to think that Lawley would put any real effort to oppose legislation that would make him millions instantly is absurd.
The cost of .XXX is $60 per registration, and as one webmaster pointed out,“I have over a thousand web addresses equating to over $60,000 per year, an unbearable burden.” And that was before the recession. As I walked out of that session, it was clear to me that no one in the industry was in favor of a .XXX sTLD. I wondered to myself if Lawley was that stupid to believe the industry was behind his efforts or that arrogant to believe it didn’t matter?” I soon came to learn it was the latter.
A month later I traveled to the ICANN meeting in Portugal with FSC Board Chair Jeffrey Douglas. Our goal was to successfully communicate the adult entertainment industry’s resounding opposition to .XXX. Unlike Lawley, we did not have access to the ICANN Board members. I had put together a one-page fact sheet and I brought pictures of the board members from the ICANN website and we waited outside the committee rooms and literally grabbed board members and members of ICANN’s Government Advisory Council (GAC) as they came out. We told them that we had important information from the adult entertainment industry that they should hear before voting on .XXX sTLD.
Some agreed to meet with us, some didn’t and some were visibly shaken, sharing with us that Lawley had threatened to sue them personally if the .XXX vote failed. For those whom we could not meet, we arranged to have our fact sheet slipped under their hotel room doors. We made enough of a splash that the board chair agreed to let us speak during the board meeting if we would leave the board members alone until then. That’s all we wanted, a chance to be heard. We did speak at that meeting and were able to communicate clearly that ICM did not have industry support for a .XXX sTLD. The vote was taken and we prevailed. .XXX failed.
As ICANN works toward transparency, some questions to keep in mind are:
- Lawley proclaims to have sponsorship community (the adult industry) support yet that information is kept secret from the industry and the general public. Why? Who from the adult industry is supporting Lawley?
- How can the process be “just” if Lawley is permitted to threaten board members with personal lawsuits?
- If .XXX has no industry support and not one country came out in favor of a .XXX sTLD, why on earth would ICANN want to institute it?
FSC works to protect the industry from those who would prey like vultures on adult entertainment industry businesses. Stay tuned folks, we will keep you posted.