vagabond

Porn sites get their own domain: '.xxx' - CNN.com

I haven't had a chance to think about this, so I can't say whether this is a good idea or not. On the surface, it seems like a good idea in terms of filtering and blocking.

Planespotta

What's porn

FlyingNasaForm

Yay, more laws!

FlyJSH

It is the industry that brought streaming video to the internet.

abelenky

There's no law (or even optional policy) that requires porn to be in the .xxx domain. There's not even a clear definition of porn. The US still operates under standards of "I'll know it when I see it" and "local community standards".

So basically, most everything on the .xxx domain will be porn, but you will still find just as much porn on .com / .net / .tv sites.

The only one this benefits is Domain Name Registrars. Next time you try to register GoFlyWithMe.com, they will also encourage you to register GoFlyWithMe.xxx, just to prevent some porn-site from taking your domain name.

rickair7777

Odds are good that many jurisdictions will limit porn to the .xxx domain in the future. Probably a good idea, makes it really easy to apply parental controls.

abelenky

The "many jurisdictions" is exactly the problem.

It makes no difference if any jurisdiction, small (municipal) or large (nation), makes such a law. The entire internet is available from the entire world. My computer in Washington State can easily reach a computer in Russia and pull information. That Washington, or the USA, has some rules about where porn can exist (or even what porn is!) makes no difference to a site in Russia.

As far as parental controls go, I understand most commercial porn sites *want* to prohibit underage visitors, and go out of their way to voluntarily list themselves with filtering software and services. It is the less-than-upstanding sites that want to avoid being filtered. They certainly won't voluntarily move to the .XXX domain. They're already trying to avoid being filtered/controlled, and staying out of .XXX furthers that goal.

The new .XXX domain gives porn a new area that is just for them (like its so hard to find porn, that we need a special domain to tell us where it is?) without putting *any* meaningful restrictions on existing .com / .net porn sites.

Planespotta

...you'll know it when you see it

tortue

The .xxx domain is just a scam to increase domain registrations under the .xxx top-level-domain. The only people winning in this case are going to the registrar (ICM Registry - About Us) as well as other companies selling domains under it as well.

Porn will still be found on .com, .net and .org like always. Sure, .xxx might be an easy filter target, but it's not going to stop porn on the Internet. Don't be surprised to see sites to have presence in both .com and .xxx, too.

The domain business is a very sketchy business. Many free DNS providers (OpenDNS as well as your own service provider) will sell DNS statistics information to companies. They sell things such as NXDOMAIN records (if you type in googl.com instead of google.com), which are queries of domains that do not exist. Those statistics are sold to people who engage in domain tasting, which is the ability to register a domain at a cheaper / discount price for a short period of time (days or weeks). The goal of these individuals is to figure out which domains people screw up and accidentally go to and throw up advertisements or other garbage (malware, etc) on the site and profit. .xxx is just yet another TLD where I bet you the registrars (ICM Registry) is probably selling statistics on who queries and what they query to resell to their customers.

rickair7777

If a variety of countries/states/localities limit porn to .xxx most of it will have to move there.

Right now, you can mostly only get in trouble if you knowingly or recklessly allow the wrong people to access adult content.

If it's restricted to .xxx, you get in trouble merely by posting it under any other top level. You would have to be based in a country which has no such law, and also has no extradition treaties to countries which do.