opinion

Press Conference at ICANN 40: Adult Industry Leaders Voice their Opposition to .XXX

In San Francisco, at last week’s ICANN 40 Conference, FSC staged a “No to .XXX” protest outside the Westin-St. Francis Hotel, which was followed by a press conference at the nearby Chancellor Hotel. Industry leaders including Evil Angel’s John Stagliano, Pink Visual’s Allison Vivas, Kink.com’s Peter Acworth, Girlfriends Films’ Dan O’Connell, Wasteland.com’s Colin Rowntree, YNOT’s Connor Young, Adult Webmaster Empire’s Douglas Richter, attorneys Paul Cambria and Allan Gelbard, and FSC Board members and attorneys Jeffrey Douglas and Reed Lee, all spoke to media in attendance.

In this video (part one of two), each speaker makes clear their complete opposition to the .XXX sTLD proposed by ICM Registry. These same industry leaders stood before the ICANN Board of Directors later that day, and repeated their objections to approval of the new domain. Listen, as they explain in their own words, why they DO NOT support the .XXX online ghetto for adult online businesses.

Unfortunately, the next morning, the ICANN Board decided to ignore their objections, the advice of the GAC committee and the Dept of Commerce, as well as objections from several of its own members – and .XXX was given approval on a 9-3 vote, with four abstentions.

Special thanks to director Michael Whiteacre, for generously donating his time to shoot and edit this video. (Mr. Whiteacre also is the director of FSC’s anti-piracy PSAs, which are now over 750,000 views on YouTube. Visit our YouTube page at FSC APAP). – jc

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