Lawley, who spoke with XBIZ while awaiting takeoff on a plane headed to Marrakesh, where ICANN meets beginning on Saturday, said that “as expected the pre-reservation has been an overwhelming success and reservations continue to come in daily at a fairly steady level.”
Lawley, however, would not disclose the number of pre-reserved .XXX domain names his company has garnered since May 29, when he disclosed to XBIZ that his company would launch the pre-registration.
The ICANN meeting in Marrakesh won’t include formal discussion over .XXX, which was brought to the forefront six years ago by ICM, based in both Jupiter, Fla., and Toronto.
Instead it will focus on arcane matters like public policy aspects of WHOIS and strategic matters on African top-level domains. The meeting, ICANN’s first global one since it rejected the .XXX proposal, also will have sessions devoted for public comment.
Last month, ICANN’s board, 9-5, rejected ICM’s bid out of “public policy concerns.”
Shortly after, ICM filed a federal lawsuit against the Commerce Department and State Department to release requested documents that are “vital” to influencing ICANN board members.
Eventually, Lawley is hopeful he will prevail in the courts and that later ICANN will reconsider .XXX.
ICM pledges to donate $10 of the proposed annual fee of $60 for a .XXX domain name to child-protection groups and to require users of .XXX to label their content.
The company is not charging for pre-reservations.