New RFC: ".sex Considered Dangerous"

[Chris Chiu]

A new Informational Request for Comments (available via the Internet Engineering Task Force website) criticizes "proposals to mandate the use of a special top level name or an IP address bit to flag 'adult' or 'unsafe' material or the like." The document charges that the "concept that a single top level domain name, such as .sex, or a single IP [Internet Protocol] address bit, could be allocated and become the mandatory home of 'adult' or 'offensive' material world wide is legal and technical nonsense. ... The implementation of a reasonable size label that could encompass the criterion of the many communities of the world, such as 300 bits, is technically impossible at the domain name or IP address level and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Besides technical impossibility, such a mandate would be an illegal forcing of speech in some jurisdictions, as well as cause severe linguistic problems for domain or other character string names."

See
http://www.internetdemocracyproject.org/#highlights

Sincerely,
Christopher Chiu
Technology Policy Analyst
American Civil Liberties Union