Tuesday, Mar 27, 2007    Text size: 

Although ICANN officials have no vote planned for Friday on the Lisbon conference schedule, ICANN’s website shows a discussion of ICM Registry’s application on the agenda for Thursday.

ICANN seldom makes its full conference agenda available in advance, and votes can come at the discretion of the board.

ICM President Stuart Lawley told XBIZ ICANN officials had told him to expect a vote Friday.

ICANN CEO Paul Twomey called .XXX a difficult issue for the board.

“This clearly is a controversial issue and an issue that polarizes, and that conflict is mirrored on the board,” Twomey said. “We are still actively seeking input on the issue, and the degree of feedback we've received has been vigorous, with the overwhelming amount of public feedback on the negative rather than the positive. I can't tell you what the outcome will be because I don't know.”

In February, ICANN published the minutes of a meeting in which board members expressed concern that .XXX did not have the support of the adult entertainment industry. The minutes referenced a panel discussion at the XBIZ Hollywood ’07 Conference as evidence that few adult webmasters favor ICM Registry’s proposal to create a porn-specific TLD.

At the February meeting, ICANN General Counsel John Jeffrey noted that the most recent public comment period — Jan. 5 to Feb. 5 — saw more than 600 public comments and more than 55,000 emails. According to Jeffrey, nearly all of the emails, which were sent from a website campaign, expressed opposition to .XXX by using a form letter. Of the public comments, 488, or 77 percent, opposed .XXX.

Lawley said .XXX had widespread support from the general public.

"The overwhelming opinion of the general public on the introduction of .XXX, as evidenced by numerous polls conducted in public over the last seven years, clearly show that over 60 percent of the general public would like to see the introduction of an adult-specific TLD," he said.