dot "ex-ex-ex" domain boondoggle, err, proposal, back again

Begin forwarded message:

From: Seth Finkelstein <[email protected]>
Date: January 6, 2007 7:25:19 PM EST
To: David Farber <[email protected]>, [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: dot "ex-ex-ex" domain boondoggle, err, proposal, back again

[For IP]
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/INTERNET_PORNOGRAPHY? 
SITE=KFWB&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Plan Would Create '.xxx' Web Porn Domain

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Internet's key oversight agency has revived a
proposal it earlier rejected to create an online red-light district,
after adding stronger provisions to prohibit child pornography and
require labeling of Web sites with sexually explicit materials. ...

http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-05jan07.htm
A revised proposed agreement with ICM providing for designation of
a .XXX sTLD registry is published for public comment. The public
comment period will be open until 5 February 2007.

	Here we go again ... brace yourself for another round of
knee-jerk punditry about Sex And The Internet. I wish more writers
would point out, as I've written before, that dot-ex-ex-ex does not,
in fact, actually *DO* anything notable in terms of ratings. It's
utterly trivial, a standard one-item labeling system (I call them
"Scarlet Letters"). These types of systems have been around for years,
at no cost (yet), with built-in browser support, not tied to any TLD.

	What ex-ex-ex *will* do, however, is produce an ongoing stream
of monopoly rents for the company proposing it (ICM Registry), as
speculators, cybersquatters, and site-owners wanting to protect their
domain name brand recognition from the first two groups, all rush to pay
through the [censored] for a TLD which basically nobody wants except
those who stand to profit from it (obscenely!).

	Note, instead of making an argument from a free-speech point
of view, I'm making an argument from a business point of view. As
a product, ex-ex-ex mainly has no value except to enrich the sellers.

-- 
Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  http://sethf.com
Infothought blog - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/
Interview: http://sethf.com/essays/major/greplaw-interview.php


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