Triple-X domain likely to be reality soon

The U.S. has pulled out of its agreement with ICANN, the international organization that makes decisions about the Internet -- and that greatly concerns one pro-family attorney.


Final decisions by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers are determined by a 21-member board, 15 of whom have voting rights. Incorporated under the law of the State of California, ICANN must abide by the laws of the United States as it oversees the complex network of unique identifiers -- IP addresses and domain names -- that allow computers on the worldwide web to find one another.

But there have been complaints about the dominance of the U.S. over the Internet, resulting in Washington recently relinquishing some control over the way the network is run and ICANN ending its agreement with the U.S. government.

Pat Trueman, special counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, recalls the influence exerted by the U.S. over the creation of a particular domain name -- one which he believes would have resulted in pornography being far more widespread than it is now.

"There have been some [U.S.] values that had been imposed on the organization that runs the Internet," says Trueman. "For example, a few years back the Bush administration weighed in heavily to say that it would not allow a .xxx domain -- a pornography domain -- to be added to the Internet."

Trueman -- a former porn prosecutor with the Department of Justice -- now believes it is a foregone conclusion that the .xxx pornography domain will be approved eventually, making the case for pornographers that their material is a part of the standard of the Internet. That, says the pro-family attorney, does not bode well for those seeking legal constraints on smut.

"When you try to prosecute...an Internet pornography case [here in the United States], I believe that legally this will make things much more difficult for the prosecutor," he laments.

In addition, Trueman notes that pornography sites will not be required to move their domain from .com to .xxx, effectively providing them added exposure.