WASHINGTON, DC — In a letter dated March 6th, Morality In Media (MIM) President Robert Peters again called on the U.S. Department of Commerce to oppose the establishment of the .xxx sTLD, in part on the grounds that creation of the new TLD “will be used as an excuse by some federal investigators and prosecutors to not enforce obscenity laws.”In the letter, which is co-signed by a variety of representatives of “pro-family” groups, “media decency” watchdogs, and other anti-porn organizations, Peters restates his assertion that “There are at least four problems with the proposed ‘XXX’ domain.”

“First, unlike zoning of ‘adult uses’ in real space, pornographers in cyberspace will not be required to use the new .XXX domain, and many (most) won’t,” Peters states in his letter to the Commerce Dept. “Others will use the new domain, but will also retain their current .COM domain. If anything, there will be more porn websites.”

The second problem with the .xxx sTLD, according to Peters, is that the domain “will provide protection for children only to the extent that parents utilize filtering/screening technology; and for a variety of reasons (including the cost and difficulty of installing and operating the technology and parental language barriers, disabilities, naiveté, indifference and neglect) many won’t use it.”

Peters adds that “parental use of technology cannot protect children outside the home, and tech savy (sic) kids can circumvent technology.”

“Third,” Peters writes, .XXX domain will not protect society from hardcore pornography.”

Citing the Supreme Court’s decision in the 1973 case Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton, Peters notes that the court held that there are “legitimate governmental interests at stake in stemming the tide of obscene materials, even assuming it is feasible to enforce effective safeguards against exposure to juveniles and to passersby.” These interests, according to the court, include maintaining a “decent society,” and protecting “public safety,” “family life,” the “total community environment” and “morality.”

The fourth point raised by Peters is the argument that the new sTLD “will be used as an excuse by some federal investigators and prosecutors to not enforce obscenity laws, just as the zoning of ‘adult businesses’ in real space was used as an excuse by some state investigators and prosecutors to not enforce obscenity laws.”

Peters further argues that, as he did in public statements earlier this year, “the XXX domain is intended to promote legalization of obscenity.”

“The Proposed ICM Registry Agreement (Appendix S, Part 8, at p. 90) states that the Registry Operator will ‘(i) promote the principles set forth in the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights related to free expression and (ii) prohibit child pornography’,” Peters writes in the letter. “The clear implication of the above statement is that pornography, other than child pornography, constitutes ‘free expression’ within the meaning of the UN Declaration.”

In the letter, Peters also objects to “the notion that hardcore pornographers that voluntarily relocate in the proposed .XXX domain and that voluntarily comply with the new domain’s rules… would thereby become part of a ‘responsible online adult-entertainment community.’”

Peters asserts that “those who produce and distribute pornography that graphically depicts, among other things, adultery, bestiality, bigamy, excretory activities, orgies, incest, prostitution, male rape, pseudo child porn, teen sluts, unsafe sex galore and the degradation, rape and torture of women (some of whom were trafficked into sexual slavery) are the antithesis of ‘responsible.’”

Instead of establishing .xxx, Peters has another suggestion; step up enforcement of obscenity laws with respect to online content.

“We think that the much-preferred alternative to ‘XXX zoning’ of obscenity is vigorous enforcement of Internet obscenity laws,” Peters writes. “Vigorous enforcement of these constitutional laws will result in many hardcore pornographers being put out of business and many other hardcore pornographers deciding to get out of the business. Vigorous enforcement will also discourage illegal and offensive marketing methods likely to draw unfavorable attention. ‘Mainstream’ cable and satellite TV operators and hotel chains can also be expected to reevaluate whether pursuing big porn profits is worth the risk of facing a RICO-obscenity indictment.”

This isn’t the first time that MIM and other “decency” groups have called on the Commerce Dept. to oppose .xxx; last year, following the rejection by ICANN of a previous iteration of their proposed contract for .xxx, ICM Registry lodged a complaint under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), asserting that the “United States government exerted undue political influence on ICANN’s consideration of the .xxx domain application.”

ICM also sought an order requiring the Commerce Dept. to “provide documents it withheld, and portions of other documents it redacted” when Commerce responded to two other FOIA requests submitted by ICM in October and December of 2005.

In a reconsideration request submitted to ICANN last year, ICM claimed that “members of the (ICANN) Board voted against the ICM Agreement based on inaccurate information about the written statements of various governments concerning .XXX.”

ICM’s reconsideration request also asserted that ICANN board members voted against .xxx based on “an unfounded concern that it could put ICANN ‘in a difficult position of having to enforce all of the world’s laws governing pornography,’” and that board members didn’t have “adequate information about the inappropriate involvement of the United States government in this process.”

According to the ICANN website, the ICANN board will again address the subject of .xxx at its meeting today (Tuesday, March 13th). It is not clear from the proposed agenda for the meeting whether a vote on .xxx will take place at the meeting; the proposed agenda states on that there meeting will include “Continuation of Consideration of Proposed .XXX Registry Agreement.”

For the full text of the MIM letter to the Dept. of Commerce, go to: http://www.obscenitycrimes.org/news/redlight2007.cfm

For information on the meeting schedule for the ICANN board, go to: http://icann.org/minutes/

For general information on ICANN’s consideration of ICM’s proposal/contract for the .xxx sTLD, refer to http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-05jan07.htm