Emergency resolution on .xxx recall

[Iliya Nickelt]

I think there are two issues here which we should not confuse:

1: What are the pros and cons for .xxx?
As a German, I have a pretty relaxed position. The trouble about ".xxx"
not surprisingly made it into the local internet related news (sex
always sells). Most of the forum discussions here in Germany are about
the weird US standpoint who set up a Guantanamo Bay prison and sell
weapons to their citizens en mass but have problems with admitting that
sex exists. In Germany, we traditionally (at least since the 20th
century) censor violence and not so much sexuality (the latter usually
havin results quite contrary to that of violence). In principle,
Germans like regulations of all sorts, but sex is not a big issue.
Then, of course, there is the point, also in the German discussions,
that the porn market is well established and .xxx is more about
regulating it than "sponsoring" it in the original sense of increasing
its volume.

However, Miltons writing is more about:

2. How do we decide about (controversal) new TLDs?
And this is where in my view the lack of the Bush administration to
accept established procedures shows up. They miss a sense of diplomacy,
and we should certainly oppose any attempt to increase the US influence
on ICANN. I think that this makes ICANNs transfer to the UN (with all
its disadvantages) more urgent.

One more comment:
On 16 Aug 2005 at 14:50, Milton Mueller wrote:
> Carlos, when businesses are regulated they are regulated by laws, by
> fixed rules carefully defining their rights and the state's powers.

Well, yes, but ICANNs rules are not carved in stone and there usually
is a lot going on besides the official paths. Take the discussion about
Verisign's .net contracts that may even have been established according
to the bylaws (so some say), but have been re-negotiated none the less.
Let's face it, this is also an advantage. But of course, this is about
an outsider to the process who wakes up after everything is settled and
would be completely ignored if he came from any other country than the
US. And that is the real thread to ICANN's potential independence.

	--iliya

PS: Here is the reward (?) to everybody who managed to read through all
this stuff above: Some time ago I re-published most of my boring
pictures from Luxembourg and earlier ICANN meetings and never told
anyone. It can be found at http://iliya.de/icann. Some might be
interesting, eg.
iliya.de/icann/mdr2000/images/MdR1100-4-Briefe.jpg
- the only existing picture of the returned letters for the first and
only election. Also, there are some nice portraits from Stockholm.
Resolution and sometimes quality is terribly low, I'm afraid. No
time...