ICANN Board Votes Against .XXX Sponsored Top Level Domain Agreement

[Rolo]

ICANN chief executive, Paul Twomey, said that the .xxx domain could be revived if a proposal were submitted to ICANN for its establishment under its regime for registering generic top-level-domains.

"It wouldn't have to pass criteria for sponsored domains," Mr Twomey said

He said some board members had doubts about whether the domain would qualify as a community of interest under ICANN's current guidelines for sponsored domains.

"The applicant had put it forward as a sponsored community from the responsible adult entertainment community. We had received letters from major companies in the sector saying that they were not supportive of it," Mr Twomey said.

Board members were also "uncomfortable" with wording in ICM's proposed contract for the domain, Mr Twomey said.

The contract in part established rules for complying with ICANN's policy expectations.

ICM had proposed to enforce pornography laws applicable across national jurisdictions. However, Mr Twomey said that ICANN's board had received advice that raised the possibility that the regulator might be held responsible should ICM fail to meet the obligation.

"Some of the members of the board asked well how do you enforce that? How do you have compliance against that?" he said.

Mr Twomey said he would reveal his personal reasons for opposing the domain when the views of all members were published later this month.

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