FSC Launches Anti-.XXX Campaign

CANOGA PARK, Calif. — The Free Speech Coalition announced Friday that it is launching an anti-.XXX campaign and urging adult online businesses not to buy into the newly-approved .XXX sTLD.

“Collectively, adult businesses understand that .ICM’s .XXX is bad for the adult entertainment industry. FSC is launching this campaign thus continuing its effort to rid the industry of this hazard. We are encouraging adult businesses to Just Say ‘NO’ to .XXX,” FSC Executive Director Diane Duke said.

“But FSC acknowledges and respects that, when push comes to shove, businesses need to do what they think is best for their company,” Duke added. “That is why adult companies need to know the implications of purchasing .XXX domain names and why buying .XXX could be the worst investment they’ll ever make.”

FSC has developed a list of bullet points highlighting what it views as some of the most serious issues for adult online businesses regarding .XXX sTLD, and why they should avoid .XXX altogether. According to the FSC:

• .XXX costs at least 10 times what your .coms cost (recent numbers thrown out are $70-$75/per domain name).

• Five days after .XXX passed, India blocked .XXX with the promise of more countries like Australia, Germany to follow — instantly de-valuing the .XXX domain names.

• sTLDs have a proven history of failure — even ones that are not blocked by entire countries and have their industry’s support.

• High traffic websites will be leery of linking to your site, fearful of themselves being blocked or having dead links in blocking countries.

• All registrants of .XXX must agree to third-party automated monitoring of their sites for compliance of IFFOR policies — and you will have to purchase your domain name before you even know what those policies are.

• Aliases (.XXX and .com going to the same site) require that related .coms adhere to IFFOR policies.

• IFFOR Policies will be determined by a council hand-picked by a board chaired by ICM’s CEO Stuart Lawley-not the industry .XXX is supposed to represent. Moreover, ICM Registry has ultimate veto power over policy development.

• Businesses who register with .XXX make their alias .coms an easier target for censorship and blocking — do you really want to put your .coms at risk?

• Do the math — it doesn’t add up. Even if ICM’s claims of new consumers who “trust” .XXX ring true, for a company like Kink.com, which as approximately 10,000 domain names, it would have to bring in a three quarters of a million dollars in new revenues annually — just to break even.

Regulatory organization ICANN approved ICM Registry’s application for the .XXX domain last Friday, despite protests from its own Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, and strong opposition from leading adult industry businesses.

As the adult industry trade association, FSC says it will continue to support the better business interests of all adult businesses, and will lead the opposition to .XXX domains because it believes that buying into .XXX is harmful to the adult industry and for individual adult business.

It further stated that the .XXX domain will serve "only to fragment the Internet, make adult online businesses an easy target for anti-adult filtering and censorship, and also make it easier for under-age users to access adult material online."