SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Now that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is mostly free of control by the U.S. government, pundits predict all sorts of dire consequences — from thorough meltdown of the domain name system to paralyzing efforts to please all sides in debates about Web content to out-of-control growth in the number of Top-Level Domains.For one notoriously anti-smut attorney, the biggest issue is how ICANN’S freedom will impact the proliferation of porn on the Web.
Patrick Trueman, once the big anti-porn dog among prosecutors in the U.S. Department of Justice and now special counsel for the far-right Alliance Defense Fund, said this week he expects the approval of a dot-xxx TLD — and potentially other porn-specific domains — now is a foregone conclusion. He also predicted his prognostication would become reality “soon.”
The problem, Trueman seemed to indicate in an interview with Christian news site OneNewsNow.com, is that a convergence of ICANN’s slipping U.S. governmental reins and the passage into history of the famously dogmatic Bush administration has left the Web’s governing body with no pro-family voices and robbed ICANN of conservative social values.
“There have been some [U.S.] values that had been imposed on the organization that runs the internet,” Trueman told OneNewsNow. “For example, a few years back the Bush administration weighed in heavily to say that it would not allow a dot-xxx domain — a pornography domain — to be added to the internet.”
Trueman said he believes ICANN will approve a dot-xxx TLD, or something similar, for economic reasons. He sees that as a bad thing because such a move not only would legitimize porn on the Web, but also would lead to exponential growth in the amount of porn online since ICANN is unlikely to force adult websites to locate in an online ghetto.
In addition, dot-xxx or another sex-centric TLD would make obscenity prosecutions more difficult, Trueman opined.
“When you try to prosecute … an internet pornography case [in the U.S.], I believe that legally this will make things much more difficult for the prosecutor,” he told OneNewsNow.
Since ICANN obtained its independence from the U.S. Department of Commerce late last month, the organization has settled control in the hands of a 21-member board composed of international representatives. Fifteen of the board members, including one from the U.S., have voting rights. Because ICANN is incorporated in California, it must abide by U.S. and California law.
