CYBERSPACE – Late last Friday afternoon, the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) published for public comment a revised version of the proposed agreement with ICM Registry Inc. for the designation of a .xxx sponsored top level domain (sTLD).The public comment period is open until February 5th, 2007. Comments can be submitted to xxx-icm-agreement@icann.org and comments can be viewed at http://forum.icann.org/lists/xxx-icm-agreement/

The consideration of the revised ICM agreement is just the latest curve in a long and winding road for the .xxx proposal, a measure proclaimed “dead” by many within the adult industry when the ICANN Board rejected the ICM’s proposed agreement following a Board meeting held May 10th, 2006.

According to a statement posted by ICANN January 5th, however, the ICANN Board “considered the agreement at its meeting on 10 May 2006 and voted not to approve the agreement as proposed, but did not reject the application.”

“Subsequently, ICM has continued to work to modify the agreement in order to address public policy issues raised by the GAC (Government Advisory Committee),” the January 5th ICANN statement continues. “ICM and ICANN Staff have been renegotiating a revised agreement for community review and board consideration. Following the public comment period, the ICANN Board will consider the revised proposed agreement in light of the ICANN community feedback and other public comments received.”

Stuart Lawley, President of ICM Registry, told YNOT via email that something “important to understand also is that the decision to proceed with the .xxx application was made back on June 1st 2005 when the ICANN Board decided the RFP criteria had been met,” and that the .XXX proposal itself was never actually rejected by the ICANN board.

“ICANN have made it clear in their recent comments that the contract, not the application, was rejected last May, as a result of compliance and enforcement concerns, NOT as a result of opposition to the TLD,” Lawley stated via email Monday. “I think this point has been lost on many people.”

Asked how ICM Registry would demonstrate support on the part of the “sponsoring community” for the proposed sTLD, Lawley explained that the definition of that term under ICM’s proposal is narrower than people might realize.

“We never defined the community to be the entire adult entertainment industry, only those who wish to be clearly identified as such,” Lawley told YNOT Monday. “In essence, only those who wish to register in .xxx and thereby identify themselves are members of our Community. All of those who oppose xxx within the Adult industry are simply NOT members of the sponsoring community, as defined.”

Lawley contends that ICM “made it absolutely clear to ICANN from the beginning that, the sponsored community was closely defined and there was a section of the general Adult Industry vehemently opposed to the application and they have made their opposition known very vocally in the current and previous comment periods.”

As evidence of support from the supporting “community” as defined in the proposal, ICM “originally submitted to ICANN many representative letters of support from members of the defined Community under the terms of the original RFP, and subsequently have communicated to ICANN the many expressions of support we have received from Adult Webmasters based in over 70 countries around the world,” added Lawley.

Asked to highlight the difference between the revised contract and the previous version, Lawley commented that the primary difference was that “in the original proposed contract ICM’s obligations contained in the application and supplemental materials were memorialized through ‘boiler plate’ language contained in other registry agreements.”

“Neither the GAC nor some of ICANN’s Board members felt this gave ICANN sufficient enforceability in its contract with us, so many of the commitments contained in the application have now been written into the binding contract between ICM and ICANN, giving them direct enforceability rights if we breach any terms,” Lawley explained.

“The new contract also provides ICANN with disapproval rights over any transfer of control of ICM and over the choice of 3rd Party labeling and anti child pornography agencies we select,” Lawley added.

Lawley noted that there are “no new policies introduced as a result of this revised contract,” just greater definition of ICM’s commitments under the contract.

“I see the main commitments in the contract as: Requirement to label each site; Prohibition on Child Pornography; to help develop industry Best Practices,” Lawley stated Monday.

“These policies are exactly the same ones that groups like FSC and ASACP are promoting through their membership,” asserted Lawley. “Registering in .xxx is merely another mechanism by which responsible members of the adult community can voluntary choose to identify themselves (and thereby become a member of the Sponsored Community).”

Relevant documents and web pages:

The full text of the revised proposed agreement between ICM and ICANN is available on the ICANN website here:
http://icann.org/tlds/agreements/xxx/proposed-xxx-agmt-05jan07.pdf

An ICM-prepared summary of the significant changes made to the agreement in the revised version can be viewed here:
http://icann.org/tlds/agreements/xxx/changes-05jan07.htm

Email comments to ICANN – xxx-icm-agreement@icann.org

View published comments here: http://forum.icann.org/lists/xxx-icm-agreement/

The ICANN statement posted Friday, January 5th can be viewed here:
http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-05jan07.htm