Infothought

.XXX domain - an idea whose time should never have been

My old .XXX domain Guardian column started out "The idea of a ".xxx" web suffix for porn sites is the internet's vampire: it seems nothing can kill it.". And it's risen again, where it'll suck not blood, but money. A point I've repeated made, to no avail, is almost nobody wants it except the people trying to profit from it. As I put it: "... if everyone from civil libertarians and censors to adult industry webmasters says .xxx is a bad idea then maybe we can all agree it's a bad idea ..."

"money quote" (literally and pun intended):

Lawley said he thinks the new address could easily attract at least 500,000 sites, making it — after ".mobi" — the second biggest sponsored top-level domain name. He expects to make $30 million a year in revenue by selling each .xxx site for $60 — and pledges to donate $10 from each sale to child protection initiatives via a nonprofit he has set up.

Value-add, so this post is not just an echo of the news - there's a "Full summary and analysis of dot-xxx comment period" on the blog of the XXX-domain registry, for example detailing all the campaigns which took place.