YNOT – On Wednesday, Canada’s national public broadcasting network CBC/Radio-Canada joined the reinvigorated debate about the porn-specific sponsored Top-Level Domain dot-xxx with a program dedicated to offering three points of view about the controversy: the adult industry’s, registrar-hopeful ICM Registry’s and a feminist perspective.As the top staffer at the adult entertainment industry’s trade organization, Free Speech Coalition Executive Director Diane Duke represented the industry’s views. She faced off against ICM founder and President Stuart Lawley and Susan Cole, who is the senior entertainment editor for the Canadian edition of feminist publication NOW Magazine.
During her segment of the show, Duke expounded upon the adult entertainment community’s concern about the potential for governments to legislate all adult content into the sTLD, making the industry an easy target for anti-erotica extremists.
She also pointed out that with an sTLD, many adult businesses would be forced into a defensive posture of registering their domain names to protect their brands and traffic. She acknowledged that ICM previously hinted at making available one-time fee to “park” a domain, thus protecting it, but she said she is alarmed by what she is hearing about the parking fee.
“In our initial discussions, Stuart [Lawley] talked about a price of $25,” Duke said on the air. “Monday I read somewhere that the price was between $50 and $250, and by Tuesday a reporter I spoke with said that it was up to $275.”
Duke stressed that an industry hard hit by the global economic recession and copyright infringement does not have the expendable income to invest in expensive defensive registrations, especially when so many online adult companies own hundreds or thousands of domains.
Finally, Duke outlined concerns about the regulatory board ICM has promised to create in order to oversee ethical operation of all websites existing within the dot-xxx domain name space.
“The nominating process and ultimate makeup of the board is still unclear,” she said. “To have a company that is not part of the adult industry oversee the regulation of our industry is simply untenable.”
During his segment, Lawley maintained that dot-xxx would be a TLD for the “responsible” adult entertainment community. He also stressed a belief that dot-xxx could be as financially advantageous for the adult entertainment community as it is projected to be for ICM. Published prognostications have ICM raking in between $30 million and $50 million annually from domain registrations.
When asked if she thought mandating dot-xxx would be socially responsible and therefore should be done, Cole answered in the affirmative. By mandating a sort of online “adult business zone,” web surfers would not as easily stumble onto porn sites, she noted.
The comment surprised Duke, who identified herself as a feminist and longtime advocate for women’s rights. Feminists are well aware of the dangers of marginalizing a community and limiting members’ rights to free expression, she said.
Cole responded that Canada does not have a First Amendment and does not hold free speech in the same esteem as citizens of the U.S.
A podcast of the broadcast will be available on the CBC’s website starting Thursday.
For more about the FSC, visit FreeSpeechCoalition.com.
