Friday, March 23, 2007

.xxx And Silly Things Heard In A Toilette

.xxx Vote Next Week

The decision ultimately could hinge on whether ".xxx" has the support of the adult-entertainment industry — and many porn sites have been strongly opposed.

"One of the criteria is that it (must) have general support among the industry it's supposed to serve, and it does not," said Mark Kernes, a board member with the industry trade group Free Speech Coalition. "I have not met one single webmaster or adult video producer that is in favor of `.xxx,' and I've met a lot of them."

Porn sites are largely concerned that the domain name, while billed as voluntary, would make it easier for governments to later mandate its use and "essentially ghettoize sexual information on the Web," Kernes said.


First off information porn is not. And I think having a clearly marked red light district is a good thing. Advise columns would not suddenly end up in the .xxx side of things unless they were about really cool ways to have better anal sex. In a you must now try this detailed sort of way.

Q. Shouldn't ".xxx" be mandatory then?

A. Mandating the domain's use would raise significant problems, namely how to define pornography. Should any site with nudity be classified? What about artistic or educational sites, such as ones on breast feeding? And who should decide, given conflicts between pornography and speech laws around the world? Even if those issues are resolved, such a requirement wouldn't stop pornography entirely: A child could simply type in the equivalent numeric address to reach a porn site directly.


Silly. The domain is there to be used by choice not assigned out of fear.

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