ICANN has approved, albeit after a long and arduous process, the adult industry top level domain dot XXX. If the ICANN policymaking process is not disrupted we should be able to see dot XXX domains sooner than later.
Many people actually oppose the dot XXX initiative raising some noble arguments, like freedom of speech or child abuse. I could go on and on with arguments in favor of and against these and other objections in relation to dot XXX.
But, no matter what side of the fence you stand on, if you are a content creator and trademark holder, one of the issues when a new space on the Internet becomes available is money. That is, because of the new real estate up for grabs, many foresee the need to secure domains, as a burden that they had better avoid.
In the case of dot XXX the problem actually lies in thinking of dot XXX in terms of the dot COM era. Content producers or right holders should stop thinking this way and realize how the post dot COM era of the Internet will (or should) work, especially with many more TLD coming in the (near) future. Let's face it; dot COM is the Wild Wild West. If dot XXX were to be defined under the same terms as dot COM, then it would be just adding land for bandits to roam freely.
But ICM Registry, the company behind dot XXX (to which I am not affiliated in any way), will verify those registering domains within dot XXX, and thus consumers will know that while inside a dot XXX domain, the content providers are legal and their transactions secure. There will be few typo domains trying to fish people, few parked domains, few spam mail from dot XXX illegal sites.
In the post dot COM era Internet users will be able to distinguish bad neighborhoods from good ones. In the case of dot XXX, an adult content user can feel secure when giving his credit card information to a dot XXX domain (as it is a verified company, that is legal and uses secure transactions), while he or she will think twice if it is a dot COM domain.
This actually could generates extra business for the content creators from risk-averse costumers. They should actually embrace this kind of space instead of oppose it (if they are actually verifiable, legal and secure companies). Dot XXX domains run at a premium price, yes, but there is no need to register typos or wildcards. Actually, thanks to an educated user that will stay within dot XXX for adult content, today's dot COM adult related domain portfolios, which include thousand of typos for protection purposes, become irrelevant. Thus, content creators can further save money by takings down domains in bad neighborhoods; after all users will not go there. Of course, companies can still keep their dot COM domains for their brands.
There is also an alternative for brand owners not related to the adult industry. They can actually block once their brands forever (for more on this check
ISSCIO.com dot XXX TOPIC). So opting out is not that expensive. They should also expect minimum abuse within dot XXX as only verified companies can register domains, which won't risk their verified status or paid premium prices for illegal domains.
For new gTLDs we can expect similar scenarios. Again, with time (and internet users do learn fast) users will be able to distinguish good neighborhoods from bad ones, and brand owners should do the same. Brand owners should recognize where there is a good initiative and take advantages from it (or opt out). Also, they should probably ignore bad initiatives. Probably, no one will end up visiting those sites anyway (and the Google bus won't take you there neither). This way brand owners can minimize costs and potentially make gains.
I'm neither for nor against adult content per se. This is actually not a discussion about that. Dot XXX approval is a discussion about what kind of Internet we want. New gTLDs will allow us to make better choices by distinguishing what are good places for me (or my family) from those which I would like to keep at a distance. Dot XXX is a great step toward the post dot COM era and will allows us to learn important lessons we can use once thousand of new gTLDs become available.
Lucas Vall
ISSCIO General ManagerNOTE: We generally use this blog space to talk about the advances of ISSCIO.com community website. Since my colleges have been doing a great job in this area this time I wanted to shares with the IP community some personal insights on New gTLDs and dot XXX as they will shape the way IP professionals perform their jobs in the Internet.
