Red-light district for the Net gets green light

SAN FRANCISCO - You've heard of ".com" and ".org." Joining them soon will be ".xxx" for pornographic websites.

On Friday, the board of directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees the Internet's naming system, approved the creation of a red-light district online. It follows a decade-long battle over such a name.

The uproar over the idea has created unlikely bedfellows.

Pornographers worry it will ghettoize their content. Although it's meant to be voluntary, they fear governments could try to mandate the domain's use so that pornographic content is more easily blocked.

Religious groups argue that giving adult websites their own corner of the Internet legitimizes the content.

Supporters have maintained that approving the domain is in keeping with the principle of openness that has fueled the Internet's growth.

Meanwhile, CNET's Declan McCullagh noted that the Free Speech Coalition, a trade group representing the adult entertainment industry, expressed disappointment after today's vote.

"The ICANN board has dangerously undervalued the input from governments worldwide," FSC director Diane Duke said in a statement. "Worse, they have disregarded overwhelming outpouring of opposition from the adult entertainment industry--the supposed sponsorship community--dismissing the interests of free speech on the Internet."

Steve DelBiano, director of the NetChoice coalition and veteran ICANN-watcher, said that the board was in a difficult position: if they rejected Lawley's proposal for .xxx, they'd face a lawsuit, yet someone else would surely bid for it during the next round of applications expected later this year. (NetChoice counts AOL, eBay, VeriSign, and Yahoo as members.) But approving .xxx, DelBianco said, could generate another showdown with national governments.