Under a new transparency policy, ICANN said it would make available online a preliminary summary of its meetings within a few days of the meeting.
The bulk of the meeting’s minutes were dedicated to “Consideration of Proposed .XXX Registry Agreement and recent public comment period.”
Alejandro Pisanty chaired the meeting at the request of ICANN Chairman Vinton Cerf, who, despite illness, was present on the conference.
ICANN General Counsel John Jeffrey introduced the .XXX item by asking the board to consider a “decision-making process on the pending issues along the following three issue areas: 1) community review and public comment of the agreement and the sufficiency of the proposed agreement; 2) the status of advice from the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) and a clarification of the letter from the GAC Chair and Chair-Elect, and whether additional public policy advice had been received or was expected following the Wellington Communiqué; and 3) how ICM measures up against the RFP criteria.”
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.
According to the meeting minutes, input specifically from the online adult entertainment industry might be difficult to gauge.
“Cerf asked whether in the breakdown of comments, it was possible to determine what fraction of the adult online content community supported the creation of the domain,” the minutes read. “Jeffrey noted that the support of the adult online content community was an issue area that had been raised in various comments, but indicated that it would be difficult to measure the participation of the larger community in this manner, since only those that wished to participate in the forum would do so.”
Rita Rodin said that note in the board’s materials indicated that in the most recent public comment period a total of 88 commentators identified themselves as adult webmasters. Of that group, 65 said they opposed .XXX.
But Kurt Pritz said that ICM Registry had provided extensive evidence for a sponsored community in its application.
Cerf then asked about a recent meeting between ICM President Stuart Lawley and members of the adult entertainment industry.
According to Jeffrey, the panel discussion at the XBIZ Hollywood ’07 Conference was “sparsely attended.” But he said he was unable to draw any inference from that on whether the industry supports or opposes .XXX.
By a unanimous voice vote the board passed two resolutions. The first requires Appendix S of the Registry agreement to be posted for additional public comment because of changes in the language of that section. Appendix S deals with the Registry’s commitment to policy development and stakeholder protection.
The second resolution the board passed raised concerns over support for .XXX.
“[Resolved that] ICANN staff consult with ICM and provide further information to the board prior to its next meeting, so as to inform a decision by the board about whether sponsorship criteria is met for the creation of a new .XXX sTLD,” the resolution said.
"The ICANN Board already determined that the ICM proposal met the sponsorship criteria, and only the contract is on the table," Lawley told XBIZ. "The discussion reflects the fact that about half of the Board members were appointed after the June 2005 vote."
To read the full minutes of the meeting, click here.