ICANN and ICM Registry finalized the contract for the .XXX “sponsored” top level domain on April 1; the news was announced on ICANN’s blog in a post by ICANN general counsel John Jeffrey.
At the same time, popular adult webmaster trade show Phoenix Forum was taking place in Tempe, AZ. A seminar was schedule at the show for April 2, titled “.XXX – Now What?” With reported record attendance at the show, many longtime, established webmasters and adult online business owners were present and attended the seminar.
In its original announcement, no representatives of ICM Registry were scheduled to appear on the .XXX panel. But after some last minute speaker-juggling, ICM’s Vaughn Liley and GEC Media’s Greg Dumas agreed to speak on the panel, on behalf of .XXX.
That’s when the real Q&A started. To kick off the seminar, the floor was opened to questions from the audience, many of which were anxious to know about ICM’s policies and bylaws for .XXX and its IFFOR regulatory committee. This article from XBIZ.com illustrates what followed after Liley was unable to satisfactorily answer several audience members’ questions.
Though Liley attempted to appease the audience with “shout-out” answers to some questions, the article says that he “would have been better off putting his hand in a fishbowl full of piranhas.”
FSC Executive Director also was in attendance at the .XXX seminar and pointed out to Liley several inconsistencies in his answers regarding ICM’s bylaws. The reaction of the assembled adult webmasters and online business owners was no surprise to FSC.
“It was clear at this seminar that adult industry professionals have had enough with ICM’s smoke and mirrors approach to the truth. ICM has seriously underestimate the adult entertainment industry’s ability to recognize a bad deal when they see it,” said Duke. “I’m going to have to agree with Greg Dumas when he said… ‘Just don’t buy it!’”
(Photo: Courtesy of the Smithsonian)
