Spooked by a new law authorizing harsh penalties for deceptive online porn publishers, adult webmasters are reconsidering a proposal for a top-level domain of their own.
The plan calls for adding a new dot-xxx suffix to the Internet's root directory, to be used exclusively by adult-oriented websites.
Although it is not a new idea in porn circles, backers say the proposal is beginning to generate more support as the adult entertainment industry toys with the possibility of greater self-regulation.
"The vision here is not to force the adult community to give up dot-com or abandon that space, because that's not a possible thing," said Jason Hendeles, president of Internet Content Management Registry, the group applying to run the dot-xxx directory. "This would be a voluntary adult domain registry."
In the past, the adult industry's largest trade group, the Free Speech Coalition, has opposed the idea of a dot-xxx registry, fearing that porn sites would be ceding ground by voluntarily relegating themselves to a virtual red-light zone.
"The experience of most of our members is that any attempt to put a fence around adult entertainment tends to lead to more and more restrictions," said Bill Lyon, the coalition's executive director. While it's not clear whether the same rules apply in cyberspace, he said, publishers haven't been eager to find out.
But Lyon said the coalition is now revisiting its position on dot-xxx. Its logic is that if porn publishers don't start finding ways to regulate themselves, Congress will do it for them.
To some extent, lawmakers already have. In a provision tacked on to the Protect Act, a law passed this spring that contains an assortment of child safety measures, legislators authorized criminal penalties for deceptive porn site operators.
The provision, copied from an older stand-alone bill called the Truth in Domain Names Act, would make it a crime to "knowingly use a misleading domain name on the Internet with the intent to deceive a person into viewing material constituting obscenity."
Under the law, those who deceive adults into viewing obscene content could face up to two years in prison. Those who mislead minors would face up to four years.
Introduced by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the legislation is intended to punish shady porn publishers, particularly those who snap up expired domains and convert them to smut sites. Over the past several years, websites of numerous G-rated enterprises, including town governments, churches and educators, have fallen victim to such practices.
However, the chief worry for Lyons, who plans to file a lawsuit challenging the act as unconstitutional, is that the law is too vaguely written and does not define "deceptive." If a porn site decides to call itself "Ziggy's Playground," for example, can one say it is deceiving children, since many people associate playgrounds with children, he asks?
Or what about the infamous Whitehouse.com, which bears the same name as an established British adult magazine, but attracts plenty of visitors each day who are expecting a different sort of site?
For publishers scared of being on the wrong side of the law, a dot-xxx domain would offer an easy fix. Since the domain would contain only adult sites, no one could possibly claim they were deceived into viewing obscene content when they entered a dot-xxx site. It would be like walking into a bar with a neon "topless dancers" sign out front and complaining about the topless dancers.
The dot-xxx idea also has had some political backing. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) once suggested that the government consider a dot-xxx or dot-sex domain as a way to shield children from sexually explicit content. And about four years ago, the House of Representatives convened a committee hearing to consider the possibility of an adult-oriented domain.
In a limited form, some websites -- including comics.xxx, Adultads.xxx and Gifts.xxx -- are already publishing in the dot-xxx extension through New.net, which sells alternative domains. But the domains are not part of the Internet's root directory and are not viewable on all browser screens.
For the ICM Registry, the initial push for a triple-X suffix in the root directory dates back to 2000. That was when ICANN, the Internet's chief regulatory body, began accepting applications for new domains to complement the already crowded dot-com, dot-net and dot-org extensions.
Dot-xxx was one of the extensions under consideration, but did not make the final cut. ICANN opted instead to go with seven other domains including dot-biz, dot-info and dot-name.
Now that ICANN is preparing to accept a fresh round of applications for new domains, Hendeles believes dot-xxx has a good chance of becoming a reality. For now, he says, it's critical to garner support from enough players in the adult industry to come onboard.
At the moment, Lyons said the Free Trade Coalition is not prepared to throw the support of its estimated 900 members behind the triple-X domain idea. However, the group is considering the proposal and intends to have its members vote on it in the next month.
