FSC Stages Rally, Press Conference in Opposition to .XXX

[LAJ]

FSC Stages Rally, Press Conference in Opposition to .XXX

Free Speech Coalition, industry leaders and members will travel to San Francisco next week for the ICANN Board of Directors meeting, to be held from March 14-18 at the Westin-St. Francis Hotel in Union Square. FSC, it's members and numerous online business owners oppose the proposed .XXX sTLD, which will is scheduled to be addressed at the meeting.

FSC has opposed the .XXX "sponsored" Top Level Domain for more than seven years; if approved, it will cost adult online business owners millions in unnecessary fees, will make it easier for anti-adult entities to block .XXX addresses, and will set precedent for fragmentation of the Internet. Last week, FSC Executive director explained the complicated issues in a five-part series, "What's Wrong with .XXX?" that can be viewed at the FSC Blog.

On March 17, FSC will stage a protest rally outside the Westin-St. Francis Hotel from 12:30-2pm. All industry members that are in the Bay Area that day are encouraged to come to the location and participate in the protest. For more information, contact (818) 348-9373 or [email protected].

Immediately following the rally, FSC will hold a press conference at a nearby location (TBA). Participating in the press conference will be industry leaders and representatives, including Evil Angel founder John Stagliano, Pink Visual President Allison Vivas, Kink.com founder Peter Acworth, industry attorney Paul Cambria, online publication YNOT's Connor Young, Wasteland.com founder Collin Rowntree, FSC Board Chair Jeffrey Douglas and FSC Executive Director Diane Duke. If you are media and would like to attend, please contact [email protected]

FSC is also asking members and industry professionals to participate in a Twitter campaign against .XXX. Please follow us @FSCArmy for further details.

Controversy was stirred when Duke used the word "bullshit" to describe the negative consequences to the industry if .XXX is approved. After returning from the ICANN-GAC Consultation held in Brussels during the first week of March, Duke indicated that there is a strong possibility that ICANN will make a decision on .XXX at the San Francisco meeting - making it crucial for industry members to voice their opposition. A public commentary period at the ICANN meeting will be conducted from 4-6pm on March 17. FSC hopes that industry representatives will be allowed to speak to the issue at that time.

Duke said in the last part of her series on .XXX, "The time to act is now! Get involved! Let's work together to send a clear message to ICANN and the world, once and for all, that we think .XXX is …BULLSHIT!"

If you would like more information, please contact FSC with the information given above.

[LAJ]

In the name of protecting the industry, children, businesses with trademarks to protect, and all things holy, let's get this nonsense defeated already.

[DWB]

Good luck with all of that.

Am I the only one who finds it a little odd that after all this time, after all the letters and emails and tweets, and all the meetings, that this is still moving forward as if no one has said a negative word about it?

[LAJ]

Originally Posted by DirtyWhiteBoy

Good luck with all of that.

Am I the only one who finds it a little odd that after all this time, after all the letters and emails and tweets, and all the meetings, that this is still moving forward as if no one has said a negative word about it?

Because they are "assuming the sale."

BTW, your name came up in conversation yesterday DWB. Here at the South by Southwest conference in Austin I was hanging out with Connor Young from YNOT and Alli from Topbucks after our panel and we thought you'd be a great addition to join them in San Fran this week.

[LAJ]

I know this topic is completely unimportant to many of you and doesn't involve tits or youtube videos, but to those who care about the future of adult, i'll keep this bumped.

[JFK]

Originally Posted by LAJ

I know this topic is completely unimportant to many of you and doesn't involve tits or youtube videos, but to those who care about the future of adult, i'll keep this bumped.

Good for you Jay

[LAJ]

A little too much of this going on... Sadly I think people would rather bitch about .xxx after the fact.

[Far-L]

I won't be able to make this event but I sure hope anyone that can possibly get there will do so.

"Without eternal vigilance, it can happen here"

[davecummings]

This is VERY worthy of a bump.

[pornguy]

Here is a Bump.. wish I could make it as well. But I wont be able to.



Let me know if there is another way I can represent myself as there.

[baddog]

Well, it looks like the weather is not going to cooperate with my intent of riding up, so I will have to settle with driving up.

[kristin]

To the top.

[fatfoo]

.xxx doesn't sound too bad.

[DWB]

Originally Posted by LAJ

BTW, your name came up in conversation yesterday DWB. Here at the South by Southwest conference in Austin I was hanging out with Connor Young from YNOT and Alli from Topbucks after our panel and we thought you'd be a great addition to join them in San Fran this week.

I hate to sound negative, but I don't see the point. I've sent my letters, my emails and my tweets, like everyone else, but I'm not going to travel for 24+ hours for this, as I honestly believe it's a done deal. However, I do hope I'm 100% wrong.

I'm also not sure what a physical, peaceful presence will do that 1000s of letters, emails and tweets could not, in addition to the FCS's effort to curb this. It will all fall on deaf ears as there is simply too much money to be made here. And did I read they have spent $12 million dollars to make .XXX a reality?

Not to mention, I don't put a lot of trust into an organization who's laying in bed with a company who's running ads on The Pirates Bay and has robbing everyone in the industry blind. That says to me that they are either unaware of what is really going on in the grand scheme of things, or they are blinded by money. Either way, it's not good or trustworthy.

[DWB]

Originally Posted by LAJ

I know this topic is completely unimportant to many of you and doesn't involve tits or youtube videos, but to those who care about the future of adult, i'll keep this bumped.

Truth is, there is going to be a domain rush on this the day it goes up for grabs. I'd be surprised if any less than 95% of the industry doesn't buy up as many as they can.

If people are willing to do business with known scammers, thieves, and criminals, they will not hesitate to buy a .XXX domain. The acceptable excuse will be, "If I don't buy them, someone else will." And you know what, they are right!

[u-Bob]

Originally Posted by DirtyWhiteBoy

Good luck with all of that.

Am I the only one who finds it a little odd that after all this time, after all the letters and emails and tweets, and all the meetings, that this is still moving forward as if no one has said a negative word about it?

It's thanks to all the emails, letter, tweets that the .xxx tld still hasn't been approved. If you go years back, you'll find articles of the ICM claiming that it's only a matter of months....

[u-Bob]

Time for one more email round:

Joe Abley, Director, DNS Group
joe.abley AT icann.org

Mehmet Akcin, Manager, DNS Operations
mehmet AT icann.org

Leo Vegoda, Operational Excellence Officer
leo.vegoda AT icann.org

David Conrad works for ICANN as Vice President of Research and IANA Strategy.
david.conrad AT icann.org

Denise Michel (VP)
denisemichel AT icann.org

Daniel Halloran (Deputy Gen. Counsel)
daniel.halloran AT icann.org
halloran AT icann.org
http://twitter.com/danielhalloran
+1/310/823-9358 ext. 22

[u-Bob]

Sandra Hoferichter, administrative coordinator of EuroDIG
info AT hoferichter.eu
sandra.hoferichter AT freenet.de
http://twitter.com/Shoferichter
http://www.icann.org/en/committees/a...richter-en.htm

Heidi Ullrich, Director for At-Large
Heidi.Ullrich AT icann.org
Telephone: + 1 (310) 578 - 8647
Fax: +1 (310) 823 - 8649
Cell/Mobile: +1 (310) 437 - 3956

ICANN At-Large Staff
staff AT atlarge.icann.org

Matthias Langenegger, Manager, At-Large Regional Affairs
matthias.langenegger AT icann.org
Main Tel: +41 (79) 644 65 35
Fax: +41 (22) 594 85 44
Skype ID: matthiaslangenegger

[Barry-xlovecam]

I am sorry to say that when the US Federal Court ruled in ICM's favor in their lawsuit against ICANN the writing was on the wall ... Pep rallies are media events — they will not trump the US Federal Courts ...

I think it is better to ensure ICM's financial losses by not participating in their scheme — not succumbing to their extortion and not buying any .xxx domains.

Also, it would be better to lobby against any governmental regulation attepting to force porn into this .xxx domain. We won't be marched into the .xxx ghetto. Maybe it is time to boycott any hostile government's registrars and datacenters?

Money talks and bullshit walks.

** added: We are a Dutch Corporation with datacenters in the Netherlands ...

[u-Bob]

Olivier Crepin Leblond
http://www.icann.org/en/committees/a...leblond-en.htm
ocl AT gih.com

Theresa Swinehart, General Manager, Global Partnerships at ICANN
Theresa.swinehart AT icann.orq
swinehart AT icann.orq

John Jeffrey, General Counsel & Secretary
John.jeffery AT icann.org
jeffrey AT icann.org

John Crain
john.crain AT icann.org

Steve Crocker
steve AT shinkuro.com

Greg Rattray
[email protected]

Nick Thorne
Nick.thorne AT icann.org

Paul Twomey
paul.twomey AT icann.org


</ publicly available info>

[LAJ]

DWB I'm actually surprised here at your defeatist attitude. The fact that so many of us have made so much noise thus far is what's keeping this held up.

Of course I didn't mean you should actually go given you are so far away... but that your ability to get your point across and understanding that .xxx is very bad for our industry would make you a great candidate to speak directly to these people.

Anyway... I'm not giving up... I'm not buying up any .xxx domains, and I'm going to be pushing for the demise of .xxx until the fat lady has truly sung.

[u-Bob]

Originally Posted by LAJ

Anyway... I'm not giving up... I'm not buying up any .xxx domains, and I'm going to be pushing for the demise of .xxx until the fat lady has truly sung.

[MediaGuy]

Tweeted, retweeted, bumped... waiting on the twitter campaign...

:D

[LAJ]

Let's keep this shit going.

The complete lack of response from several other heavy hitters in the industry over this issue is STAGGERING.

And TELLING...

[u-Bob]

icq me your twitter account and i'll get you some retweets

[Quentin]

Originally Posted by Barry-xlovecam

I am sorry to say that when the US Federal Court ruled in ICM's favor in their lawsuit against ICANN the writing was on the wall ... Pep rallies are media events — they will not trump the US Federal Courts ...

Um... which US federal court was that? I think you are confusing the Independent Review Panel with a federal court, perhaps?

If so, then it's worth noting that the IRP decision wasn't actually binding for the ICANN Board; they could have rejected the IRP's decision -- but the Board was worried that THEN ICM would sue them. This was a very reasonable concern on their part, as it was pretty clear that ICM did intend to sue, if the Board did not go along with the IRP's (2-1) decision.

The fact remains, however, that nothing about .XXX has been challenged in court... yet.

If ICANN approves the proposal, which is looking pretty likely, you can bank on some bright bulb in Congress immediately introducing (in the case of a few such bright bulbs, that should be "reintroducing") a bill that would require all U.S.-based adult sites to move to .XXX.

That's when things will get interesting.

Stuart Lawley has averred in the past that he will fight any such measure to make .XXX mandatory. This is (ostensibly, at least) one reason he retained Robert Corn-Revere, a very prominent and experienced First Amendment specialist, to represent ICM.

Of course, Lawley also once promised that he would not use the number of pre-registrations of .XXX domains as evidence of sponsoring community support, and he as since gone back on that promise... so it is probably advisable to take his pledge to fight a mandatory .XXX with a grain of salt.

The good news is that any legislative attempt to force the industry (or the U.S.-based portion of it, anyway) to migrate to .XXX will face a challenge court from someone, whether or not Lawley lives up to his promise to fight such a law.

The bad news is that if Lawley goes back on his promise, it is pretty likely to be an entity that is against the establishment of .XXX in the first place that ends up footing the bill for the legal fight against making .XXX mandatory. (Nice, eh?)

As Brandon might say.... Fight the Bait and Switch! ;-)

[Lonny]

im no heavy hitter but ill give you a friendly bump to help keep this going.

[u-Bob]

Originally Posted by Quentin

Stuart Lawley has averred in the past that he will fight any such measure to make .XXX mandatory. This is (ostensibly, at least) one reason he retained Robert Corn-Revere, a very prominent and experienced First Amendment specialist, to represent ICM.

Of course, Lawley also once promised that he would not use the number of pre-registrations of .XXX domains as evidence of sponsoring community support, and he as since gone back on that promise... so it is probably advisable to take his pledge to fight a mandatory .XXX with a grain of salt.

Lawley has already indirectly admitted that the ICM will actively lobby to make the .xxx tld mandatory for adult content.

[LAJ]

Definitely don't need to be a heavy hitter to support the fight against .xxx!

But the fact that some have been pretty silent over the last few months about this... sucks.

[LAJ]

Originally Posted by u-Bob

icq me your twitter account and i'll get you some retweets

Done.

I'll put it here too...

twitter.com/ynotnews
twitter.com/ynotsummit
twitter.com/dhmgroup

[Quentin]

Originally Posted by u-Bob

Lawley has already indirectly admitted that the ICM will actively lobby to make the .xxx tld mandatory for adult content.

Really? Very interesting.

Was this indirect admission something that was captured 'on the record,' or is this coming from an account of a private conversation of some kind?

[u-Bob]

Originally Posted by Quentin

Really? Very interesting.

Was this indirect admission something that was captured 'on the record,' or is this coming from an account of a private conversation of some kind?

He's been selling the idea of a .xxx tld to the media* as "an effective way to block inappropriate content".

Now blocking adult content based on the tld can only be effective if all adult content is located on a .xxx domain. Otherwise it can never be an effective way to block content.

When I asked him about this on the XBiz forum he chose to ignore the issue several times. He could have simply addressed it by saying he's not responsible for what goes on in the .com tld or something like that. But no, he refused to address the issue.

So, imo, promoting the .xxx tld as an effective way to filter content + the fact that it can only be effective if it's mandatory + the fact that Lawley refuses to address the issue + the fact that the ICM would make a lot of money if .xxx were made mandatory = makes me very... worried.

If the .xxx tld ever gets approved and someone tries to make it mandatory, there will be no incentive whatsoever for the ICM to try and stop it.


* The BBC etc.

[u-Bob]

It'd like saying your product is designed to kill people and then saying it is not a weapon....

[Nikki_Licks]

Originally Posted by LAJ

Definitely don't need to be a heavy hitter to support the fight against .xxx!

But the fact that some have been pretty silent over the last few months about this... sucks.

Sure makes you wonder, doesn't it?

If I believed in an issue so much, I would not be embarrassed to stand up and let it be known....

Bump for the cause

[DWB]

Originally Posted by Nikki_Licks

Sure makes you wonder, doesn't it?

If I believed in an issue so much, I would not be embarrassed to stand up and let it be known....

Bump for the cause

Too many major players and companies have been silent on this. The reason why is painfully obvious. If you were in support of .XXX, as you said, you'd let everyone know. It's those who are silent that you have to worry about.

[Barry-xlovecam]

@Quentin It was some sort of lawsuit, administrative action perhaps, I don't recall the exact venue. Doesn't change the facts, Administrative Court or Federal Court the decision was against ICANN's actions years ago in ICANN's denial of the .xxx domain.

My recommendation, screw Lawley, just boycott his ass and use the .xxx policies to remove your domain names. We should follow that procedure for EVERY domain name that porn collectively owns.

9. Mechanisms for those who are not part of the Sponsored Community to protect their
intellectual property.
a. ?Pre-Reservation Service,? available since May 2006, facilitates inheritance between
namespaces. The service enables existing holders of an identifier who are (i) members
of the Sponsored Community and/or (ii) trademark holders to reserve - free of charge -
xxx registrations that correspond to their existing registrations in other ICANN
recognized TLDs.

http://www.icmregistry.com/docs/prev...20jul10-en.pdf

Trademark your domains names and make Lawley and ICM resister your names FREE.

Turn the tables on his ass ...
Refuse to play his game ...
Use his own policies to screw him ...

And, should they change their policies SUE THEM.

[LAJ]

Originally Posted by Nikki_Licks

Sure makes you wonder, doesn't it?

If I believed in an issue so much, I would not be embarrassed to stand up and let it be known....

Bump for the cause

Yeah exactly.

If .xxx is such a wonderful thing that is going to save the children, then why the fuck aren't all the people who support it, trumpeting the cause??? The other side isn't making 1/1000th noise we are.

Hell... at least admit you think it's a load of shit but you stand to make money off it. After all... it won't win you popularity points but it still would be a legal option.

Are people that weak?

The silence is so loud it's hurting my ears.

Soooo... is it safe to assume that those who haven't been chiming in against .xxx are either:

a. in support of it
b. stand to make bank off it
c. don't give a shit about the future of adult
d. too blind / lazy to even know about it
e. a combination of a, b and/or c

[LAJ]

Bump for the afternoon crowd...

[DWB]

Originally Posted by LAJ

Soooo... is it safe to assume that those who haven't been chiming in against .xxx are either:

a. in support of it
b. stand to make bank off it
c. don't give a shit about the future of adult
d. too blind / lazy to even know about it
e. a combination of a, b and/or c

Makes ya wonder doesn't it?

[davecummings]

Thanks to U-Bob supplying those above email addresses of ICANN folks, I'm about to email my total lack of support of .xxx to them, and indicate that I strongly believe that a large percentage of REAL stakeholder people are against it.

[pornguy]

A lot of people in and out of the biz will try and buy all the domains they can in hopes of selling them to the sites at a profit or waiting until they become mandatory and then you are forced to buy at what ever they want or, you simply go out of business.

[Quentin]

Originally Posted by Barry-xlovecam

@Quentin It was some sort of lawsuit, administrative action perhaps, I don't recall the exact venue. Doesn't change the facts, Administrative Court or Federal Court the decision was against ICANN's actions years ago in ICANN's denial of the .xxx domain.

It doesn't really matter, but just to point out the rather substantial difference between a decision by a court (federal or otherwise) and the decision from the Independent Review Panel that heard the ICM/ICANN dispute, here is what ICANN stated as its three options in terms of a response to the IRP's findings:

The three primary options in considering the Panel?s IRP Declaration include: (1) accept findings of the majority in full; (2) accept findings of the majority in part; or (3) disagree with majority and accept findings of the dissenting Panel member.

I don't know of too many court decisions in which the losing party gets to choose whether to concur with the majority or to adopt the dissenting position.... ;-)

This was my whole point in disputing what you'd posted. I'm not trying to nitpick here, at all; there simply is a HUGE difference between a decision rendered by a federal court and the decision that was issued by the IRP in this instance.

The decisions of the former are legally binding to all parties involved (pending appeal, when and where applicable, naturally) and the decisions of the latter amount to a suggestion -- albeit a suggestion that ICANN probably would have been sued over if they chose not to adopt it.

See the difference?

Again, I'm not trying to be picky here... but I also don't want people reading this to think "Oh a court already ruled in ICM's favor on this? I guess it is a done deal, then."

[Connor]

Originally Posted by DirtyWhiteBoy

Good luck with all of that.

Am I the only one who finds it a little odd that after all this time, after all the letters and emails and tweets, and all the meetings, that this is still moving forward as if no one has said a negative word about it?

Yes, I am right with you... if this does go through, as some predict, someone should ask ICANN why they chose to ignore the thousands and thousands of people from the industry who have made their voice loud and clear.

[Connor]

Originally Posted by Far-L

I won't be able to make this event but I sure hope anyone that can possibly get there will do so.

"Without eternal vigilance, it can happen here"

If I can fly in from half way across the country on short notice -- with a damn hop, I might add -- at high personal expense, then I hope at the VERY least the locals will find a way to get there.

[davecummings]

Here's What I Emailed (Some of the Emails came back "undeliverable")

"FW: Alert! Alert! Alert! Please Forward to Your Superiors AND All Voting Officials at the San Francisco ICANN Meeting Concerning .xxx

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 4:37 PM
To: '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'; '[email protected]'
Subject: Alert! Alert! Alert! Please Forward to Your Superiors AND All Voting Officials at the San Francisco ICANN Meeting Concerning .xxx
Importance: High

I am this stakeholder/member of the sponsored community that will be adversely affected if you approve .xxx:
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=...F-8&fr=fp-yie8

Likewise, from a segment a couple of weeks ago on "The Colbert Report" (go 30-40 seconds into it for my part):
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-col...geriatric-porn , you surely realize that I am a legitimate member of the sponsored community concerning .xxx.

In my First Amendment protected personal opinion;

1. As the owner of hundreds of adult-related .COM domains, and some adult websites, and as a content provider Producer/Director/Performer, my opinion from monitoring forums/media/etc and interacting with many other affected folks is that there is very little support for approval of .xxx from the vast majority of affected individuals in the LEGITIMATE sponsored community.

2. IMO, there is cause to worry about the possibilities of some hanky-panky is past contentions the we somehow support .xxx; a considerably large percentage of the sponsored community do NOT seem to support .xxx; ICANN voters, IMO, should NOT be fooled into thinking otherwise.

3. IMO, if .xxx is approved against the will of the REAL stakeholders, I personally wonder if a high level detailed and wide-ranging U.S Government formal investigation will be requested/needed to document who/how and which entities and individuals contributed to the "fooling of ICANN".

4. IMO, it seems like ICANN approval of .xxx might well cost jobs, earnings losses to the REAL stakeholders, decreased government sales and tax revenues, and possibly cause lots and of law suits AGAINST ICANN and possibly other people and entities to recoup the monetary losses that the sponsored community might continually suffer if .xxx is approved.

Please EXPEDITIOUSLY convey my above opinions to appropriate individuals, especially those who might be voting on the .xxx issue.

Sincerely,

Dave Cummings"

[Connor]

Regarding the lack of posts on this issue... I don't think that is necessarily a symptom of hidden support or being in on the game or any of that... I think it's more to do with what DWB is feeling. After the last few years, watching one or two tube companies decimate the industry, and then watching the "small" players cave one by one and try to do business with them under the banner of "My Ass Was Whooped So I Joined the Thieves," yeah, that's a bit demoralizing.

I choose not to let that sway me, but I do understand why some people are going a bit numb.

If you're on the fence though, shake off that numbness. At the very LEAST, we'll have some fun in San Fran. It's a great city, fun stuff to do, just bring a jacket. ;)

[Allison]

Originally Posted by DirtyWhiteBoy

Too many major players and companies have been silent on this. The reason why is painfully obvious. If you were in support of .XXX, as you said, you'd let everyone know. It's those who are silent that you have to worry about.

Well I'll be in San Francisco. Feel free to email me any of your letters as well and I'll print them in the event I speak to any media or they might just otherwise inspire me.

I don't think all silent companies are in support. Silence and/or inaction have been all too common in our industry when it comes to many controversial subjects that can ultimately impact people's bottom lines. Silence and inaction often comes from the lack of effort towards learning about the matter and the solutions.

Just a reminder for folks commenting here that representing those opinions elsewhere is what really counts. Send letters to ICANN or the FSC to make sure you are heard.

~Alli

[arock10]

I'm not buying shit

[vdbucks]

IMHO, it's not going to matter what you do.

The history of the world, especially the greedy ass country known as the United States, shows that money makes the policies.

And sure, even if it does go live, sure we can refuse to participate... but then it'll become law before too long.

And all the scumbag losers of this industry who couldn't make an honest dollar in their pathetic, worthless lives, will spend as much as possible buying up domains just to turn a profit.

It's about money, that's all 90% of the scamming, scheming fucks in this world care about.

It's called greed and it's been running peoples lives for decades, centuries even.

[Redrob]

Join us in San Francisco on Thrusday at 12:30pm in Union Square in front of the Westin Hotel for a rally and FSC press conference.